The Ferns Medical Practice

They are hopeless. We're all struggling with Covid restrictions these days but its nearly two years on and as I type I've been holding for 45 minutes and still not been answered. I've been trying to get a follow up appointment from 4 weeks ago. They seem to be massively understaffed for the patient numbers and especially on the reception desk. Two days ago they had switched off the online system due to being too busy. It's a shame that patients are made to fit around the capacity constraints. The recent merger appears to have made things worse. The table above showing practise performance is scary tbh. If there was another local provider then I'd join them.

I have been with this company since I was 5 years old over the past years we have had very good doctors but the good ones always leave .l am sorry to say that the ferns is no longer the best ,it’s not even second best. The doctors who run it now needs to start getting things back to normal it could not get any worse.Been with them 70 years it must get better AlanSewrey

Unfortunately it is not possible to give zero stars! The 'ask my GP' function on the website is ALWAYS down. I have not been able to use it to book an appointment for months. When the system is down it requests that you *do not* ring the surgery. I finally rang today as my request is now urgent and I need to discuss referral results with my GP, whom I have also not spoken to in months. After waiting on hold for nearly one hour, I was told that they do *not* take appointments for future bookings over the phone and can only allocate same day appointments, all of which were gone at 2.30pm. I was then told to login on at 8am in the morning next week to use the online booking system... I was then scolded by the receptionist for expecting the system to work at any other time than 8am - when this is clearly a new time limit they have introduced for limiting peoples access to the surgery once again. I was made to feel like their inadequacies as a surgery were somehow my problem, for not knowing the system only works between 8am and 9am.... My understanding is the booking system was put in place to avoid a surge of people contacting the surgery first thing, yet the booking system now only works at 8am? I was then told it was my own fault for not logging on at 8am to get an appointment, despite the fact I have used the online service to book appointments several times before at different times of the day. This is completely unacceptable and is putting peoples health and lives at risk, especially with the huge backlog covid has created. I am already struggling with various health issues that are simply not being addressed and even a simple catch up call with my GP - after several months and referrals to other health providers is impossible to secure. My referral also made recommendations for my GP to prescribe a new medication, I cannot make an appointment online or over the phone, so I am still unable to get this medicine.