We are aware that some of our patients are finding it difficult to access appointments, particularly for routine or non-urgent issues, and are very conscious that this is worrying for both our patients and those who care for them, as well as for our own team.
Feedback from you, our patients, is clear – when you’re able to speak to our clinical team, we continue to deliver the high standard of care you have come to expect from us, but your biggest concerns are around contacting the practice, and making appointments with GPs in particular.
On a local level, there are a number of reasons for this – a growing population across Bicester means our patient list is increasing at an unprecedented rate, whilst our Covid and flu vaccination programme will continue to put pressure on our clinical team until the end of the year. But these issues are not unique to Bicester or to Montgomery-House Surgery, and across the UK patients are reporting longer wait times for GP appointments. Nationally, long waiting lists for hospital treatment mean that patients who might have expected to be treated in hospital are returning to primary care as their symptoms are unresolved, and those who chose to hold off on treatment during the height of the Covid pandemic now need care. The solution is simple – we need more doctors, nurses and clinicians – but the implementation of that solution is not.
We face a shortage of staff in both our clinical and support teams. It has been well reported in the press that there are now fewer full-time equivalent GPs in England than there were in 2015, meaning that each GP needs to support a growing number of patients. Patient safety is paramount and it’s right to restrict the number of appointments it is safe for each GP to undertake on a given day – working longer hours is not a safe solution.
Along with recruiting for more staff across the practice, some of the other steps we are taking to try to address these issues are:
- Offering Enhanced Access clinics on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings
- Introducing a wider range of other clinicians to ease the pressure on GPs – including paramedics, physiotherapists, social prescribers, and pharmacists
- Restarting walk in blood clinics
- Remote consultations – we moved into the current building more than 25 years ago and it was not designed to support over 17,000 patients, so space is a real issue for us. Switching to the ‘telephone first’ system for appointments has helped relieve pressure on rooms, and we will continue to rely on remote consultations to maximise the number of appointments we’re able to offer.
How you can help
- Be patient – we understand your frustrations and sympathise with them and are working as hard as we can to answer every call, eConsult and email, please be patient with us
- Self-refer where you can – there is a wealth of information available for self-referrals, particularly on our eConsult service, please use them
- Use Community Pharmacies for minor complaints – coughs, colds, thrush, eczema, head lice and so on can be effectively treated by your local pharmacist
- Plan ahead – particularly for repeat medications, and routine tests and appointments, submitting requests or booking appointments well in advance before they become urgent
- Use our dedicated nurse and healthcare assistant appointment line on 01869 362 922 in the afternoons to relieve pressure on the telephone lines in the mornings; and call our dispensary directly on 01869 362 944
- Come and join our team. Click to see our current vacancies.
