Share review of Farningham Surgery

Farningham Surgery 2023-10-17 Person 1 5 0

Over the past 2years trying to get an appointment for my young baby has been next to impossible, and I have found the support of the surgery to a new parent to be non existent! On 2 occasions I was on hold for over an hour to be told all appointments had gone & advised to take my poorly baby to A&E which seems a wholly inappropriate use of nhs resources, for a young child with a cough that could easily have been dealt with by the GP. In both instances I ended up having to attend urgent care with my baby to get the assessment & advice I needed. Antibiotics were issued on one occasion which could easily have been issued by her gp surgery had they been willing to see her. More recently on advice from the surgery I have completed an econsult form for my daughter in order to avoid an hour on hold on the phone. This was responded to promptly (the same day) & I was advised to make an appointment. I was shocked to learn the appointment would be on the phone to triage her needs & decide if my 2year old was worthy of a face to face appointment. Surely the triage has taken place from the econsult form, as the patient I have no further information I can give that has not already been given. The appointment is 10days from now so I assume the practice is hoping my child’s symptoms will have disappeared by then or that they will have worsened & I’ll have gone elsewhere either way it seems they have no desire to act on children’s health concerns. If ever you do get to see a gp they are always very helpful & supportive but I find the general service from the practice & the processes it employs to be appalling.

Prioritise children’s health. 10days is too long to wait for a phone appointment or being sent to urgent care is unacceptable when all that is needed is to listen to a chest/look in their ears & prescribe antibiotics. If asking patients to complete an econsult form treat this as a triage form & act accordingly.