Poor communication
Booked an appointment just past 08:00 via anima. Was easy to do and said the outcome was a phone call by the doctor in the morning. After waiting until 13:00 with no word I rang the reception to find out if there was a problem. Receptionist was unapologetic, bordering on dismissive and said “the doctor is working through the phone calls”. I understand it gets busy and things happen but if you are using an online service you should communicate with your patients better as if they are there in front of you. If I was in the reception and there was a delay in seeing the doctor you could easily communicate by putting a sign up or tell people as they arrive and the same should be done for people at home. If you communicate better it would save people wondering and becoming frustrated with the uncertainty. Most people are reasonable and will understand if there is an issue but only if they are told about it. Just because it is a GP practice it doesn’t absolve you of having to have good basic customer service. Patients often get inundated with messages that tell them to be kind, be patient and not to be rude and rightly so. But maybe if you communicated better people wouldn’t become frustrated and then be rude