Sadly, we are seeing an increase in cases of verbal abuse towards our telephone staff here at the surgery.
We understand that wait times for routine GP appointments are frustrating. This is being driven by the increase in population size and the decrease in the numbers of practicing GP’s. In Gloucestershire alone each GP now has a patient list size of nearly 2000 patients each. This increased demand has been further compounded by the extended waiting times for hospital treatment in the UK and the knock-on effects from the pandemic.
A recent national survey of GP reception staff found that 74% of them had experienced verbal abuse on a weekly basis and almost 40% said it occurred daily.
Here at Mythe Medical Practice we do our upmost to try and keep our lead times down on routine GP appointments as much as possible and our triage system for ‘on the day’ care is available during opening hours for patients with genuine urgent medical needs. Our telephone staff work hard to ensure that all queries are dealt with in a timely and efficient manner and we will not tolerate anyone that verbally abuses them.
Any violation of this policy may result in removal from the practice patient list.
Thank you for your understanding