Our telephone system can handle multiple incoming and outgoing calls at any one time. Our outgoing calls are independent of incoming ones, meaning incoming calls will never be ‘blocked’ when we make an outgoing call.
We have a limit of 20 callers who can join the queue for our most commonly chosen option, Appointments. This limit can be increased or decreased. We try to find a balance between the number of callers who can join the Appointments queue and the amount of time that those callers have to wait for their call to be answered – simply put, the more callers we allow to join the queue, the longer the wait will be.
Once the queue is full, whilst callers will still be able to choose the option for Appointments, they will be played a message advising that the queue is full and asking that they call back later – the call will then automatically be terminated. We understand the frustration this causes amongst patients, however are constrained by the limitations of our phone system.
In the past, our queue length has been as big as 50 callers. However, this caused frustration amongst patients who were disappointed that there were often 40+ callers in front of them in the queue and that they had had to wait a long time for their call to be answered.
We welcome constructive feedback as to how we can improve the experience that callers to the surgery have. We suggest that feedback and comments such as this are directed to our Patient Participation Group, who act as a voice for all patients. The surgery work hard to improve the experience that callers to the surgery have and respectfully request workable solutions, rather than just criticism. We also ask that patients bear in mind that our Reception staff work incredibly hard to process calls as quickly as possible but will give each caller as long as they need on the phone, be this 30 seconds or five minutes (this includes you).
If there are more than seven callers in the queue, you will be offered the opportunity to receive a ‘call-back’ by pressing eight on your phone’s keypad. This allows you to hang up your phone and retains your position in the queue until you reach ‘next call to be answered’. The phone system will then automatically call you back on the number you called from and connect you to a Receptionist. Please note: if your phone has a ‘call-guard’ type feature (common on landlines), requiring callers to your number to say their name and press a number on their phone’s keypad before it connects to you, you should not use the call-back facility – as the call back is automatic, saying a name and pressing a number, is not possible; once again, we recognise the frustration this causes amongst patients, however are constrained by the limitations of our phone system.
We’d recommend that where possible, patients use GP Online Services to make appointments, or, for non-urgent enquiries, to use the Contact us online form. This means that, for those patients who either can’t, or don’t want to, use the aforementioned, they can get through as quickly as possible.
If you would rather use the phone to make an appointment, we’d recommend that where possible, you use our automated appointment management system, known as Patient Partner. This allows you to book, check, change or cancel GP appointments, and check or cancel appointments with other clinicians. To do this, providing we have the correct contact number for you in your records, you simply need your six digit date-of-birth, and the last six digits of one of the contact numbers we have for you in your records, and key them in using your phone’s keypad. For example:
- if your date of birth was 17th July 1964 with contact numbers 02476 123456 and 07725 789012 in your record;
- you would enter 170764 and one of 123456 or 789012;
- to access Patient Partner, after selecting option one for Appointments, select option nine for our automated appointment management system;
- as with Online Services, Patient Partner is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week – if you call outside of our phone line opening hours (Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 6.30pm), press one on your phone’s keypad and this will connect you to Patient Partner.