Buckshaw residents up in arms over surgery wait times

Expressing her frustration at trying to book an appointment with Buckshaw Village Surgery, for her five-year-old son to no avail, the mother who wished to remain anonymous claims she waited hours to be told to go to Accident and Emergency.

“I rang in the morning at 8am when lines opened to book an appointment and it took two hours to get through at 10am to be told there were no appointments left."

Explaining she went down the 111 route instead of waiting any longer she added: “It’s a serious problem with Buckshaw Surgery not giving appointments. It’s ridiculous.

“They have not got patients’ care at the forefront of their minds anymore.”

Others took to social media to vent their outrage.

“I need an appointment and I can’t face the stress of how bad it is”, said one, while another added: “It’s terrible of late isn’t it, mum tries and gives up, don’t blame her.”

Another resident claimed he was in the phone queue for over two hours just to order a prescription.

“In the end I just drove to the surgery whilst still in the queue, placed my iPhone on the receptionist counter “loud speaker mode”, sat down and waited for a reaction.

“Can I help you”’?

“Yes ………… just listen to this for a couple of hours and I will tell you why I’m here.”

He added that in the end he ordered his script and was offered a complaint form. “The only losers are the registered patients.”

Another claimed it took her 45 minutes to get through to then be told they (the surgery) were closed for the afternoon.

“I finally got a call at 11.03pm (yes, 11pm at night!) from 111 and, of course, by that time it was too late to get any medication.”

“If you get to see a doctor their service/care is great.”

Commenting on the problem, NHS Chorley and South Ribble Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Chief Officer Denis Gizzi said: “All GP practices are continuing to provide support to patients as well

as playing vital role in the Covid-19 vaccine delivery programme.

“Clinical triage processes used by all practices ensure that the most urgent cases are seen and treated as a priority.

“We understand that delays can be frustrating and practices are working hard to reduce these where possible.

“We thank the public for their continued understanding of the pressures on all NHS services.”

An unannounced inspection at the surgery in December 2016 carried out by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) deemed the surgery ‘Good’ in all aspects, with a rating of ‘Outstanding’ for responsiveness.

During an annual regulatory review carried out in February 2020, the CQC deemed the information available in regards the surgery did not warrant a further inspection.

The report read: “We did not find evidence of significant changes to the quality of service being provided since the last inspection.

“As a result, we decided not to inspect the surgery at this time. We will continue to monitor this information about this service throughout the year and may inspect the surgery when we see evidence of potential changes.”