Angmering Surgery

Couldn't see a doctor but was given an appointment with a non GP. He missed the fact that I had shingles and when I sent in a photo of my rash at 8.20am the following day and mentioned to the receptionist how important it was to have the antiviral medication asap I had to wait until 9pm before I got the prescription so I missed the window so my recovery took longer than it should have.

Every time i need to ring Angmering Medical Centre for an appointment, the average waiting time to speak to a receptionist is 50 minutes. Once i finally get through to somebody,i am spoken to with what i can only describe as disdain,as if i am being an inconvenience. Makeing the simple request to get myself or my son an appointment seems almost insurmountable. Thankfully ,it is rare i have to ring for a doctor, but dealing with this surgery seems to cause more suffering than the actual medical complaint at the time! The last time i had to contact the surgery for my little boy was a few weeks ago. After waiting for 2 hours to get through to a receptionist, i was patronised ,snapped at and told to send my sons symptoms to the surgery via a link, which incidentally i never recieved from the surgery.I attempted to call back the surgery to enquire about this link and i was again put in another queue ,where i was 25th in line .Several hours had past by this time and i decided to go to the 111 service, who arranged a pediatrician to contact me ,who was absolutely lovely and quickly diagnosed a nasty virus that my son had picked up.It was so refreshing to be spoken to with respect and empathy which sadly i have never been given by Angmering medical centre. I have never been anything but polite and respectful to the staff at the surgery, i am extremely mindful of the huge volume of calls and pressure that the receptionists are under and while i certainly dont expect to be treated as a vip ,i would like to be treated with the decency i feel any patient ,or in fact person deserves.

I just had to stand in queue for receptionist for 30 mins. Who I feel sorry for as both myself & the ones in front hadn't had their original request/appointment dealt with properly (& needed correcting. The same as myself a prescription hadn't been signed off after telephone conversation between receptionist myself & doctor the day before. Wasting everyone's time by not finishing the jobs off. So is the new system working????