Corby's Lakeside Surgery apologises for appointments woes

Lakeside Surgery said it was recruiting more staff to help with the increase in demand

A GP surgery has apologised after patients said they were unable to contact them or make appointments.

Lakeside Surgery in Corby, Northamptonshire, said the number of patients trying to contact them each week had risen from 4,000 in April to 7,000 in May.

Patients said they were "frustrated" at a phone system that either cut them off or keep them on hold.

GP Partner Dr Rosaline West said the team were "equally frustrated".

"We understand and acknowledge the problem our patients are facing and we are sorry for that," she said.

"We have noticed patient demand to speak to a member of our team has surged significantly in recent weeks."

Dr Rosaline West said the surgery was working to expand the team but the process "takes time"

Dr West said the increase in demand on GP surgeries was not just a local issue but something which was happening across the country.

"We are trying to respond to the increase in demand as quickly as we possibly can," she said.

The surgery has trained up other members of the team to answer the phones as well as recruiting more staff.

"We acknowledge out phone line system isn't up to the job of handling this quantity of calls," Dr West said.

"We know some patients are getting an engaged tone or having the call cut off."

Dr West said the surgery was installing a new phone system later in the summer which would allow more patients to get through as well as providing a call-back feature.

Tom Pursglove MP said he believed it was a national issue

Conservative MP for Corby Tom Pursglove said the number of constituents contacting him about issues of contacting their local surgery was "much higher than anything I've ever known".

"There's clearly a problem and we've got to find a solution," he said.

"I'm not apportioning blame to anyone, I'm not blaming our GP surgeries, they have a really tough job and all of them work incredibly hard - but something's going wrong."

Mr Pursglove said he had spoken to the clinical commissioning group about concerns and was arranging meetings with local surgeries.

He added that the increase in housing in the local area needed to be looked at "to see if there is a correlation" between that and the increase in demand for appointments.

Bob Riley set up an online group for patients who were struggling to get appointments

Bob Riley was struggling to get an appointment at Lakeside Surgery and decided to see how many others were experiencing the same issue.

Within a few weeks, he had hundreds of members who were all feeling "anger frustration and worry".

"They're not getting appointments and they're not getting treated," he said.

The 62-year-old said he believed it was the booking system which was making difficult as patients had to call up at 08:00 for an appointment that day.

"People just cannot get through and that's the issue," he said.

Yvonne Porter said she tried for six weeks to get her son an appointment

Yvonne Porter said she tried to get an appointment for her son for six weeks at Lakeside Surgery before contacting the hospital direct.

"I was having to call 60-100 times just to get through and by the time I did they either cut you off or there were no appointments left," she said.

"It was so frustrating. There has to be a better system.

"I understand the pandemic hasn't been the greatest situation but it's the fact they are letting people down because you can't see a doctor properly."

Dr Joanne Watt, GP Chair at the NHS Northamptonshire Clinical Commissioning Group, said there had been "unprecedented demand" on GP services in the past 12 months but practices were adapting.

"We understand this has been a difficult period for everyone and the additional demand on services has led to frustration for some of our local population, and we would like to thank them for the flexibility and patience they have shown," she said.