Please provide us with the service we deserve

Further to letters published on the appalling new telephone system for the new Victoria Medical centre, Mr Grinsted CEO has written to patients explaining that on switch over to the new system they received 3,800 calls per day instead of the expected 500.

This is a totally spurious excuse for the abysmal failure. There was most likely the same number of patients ie 500 trying to get through but these patients made multiple calls when being first faced with information that they were number 44 on the waiting list. I, like most others, put the phone down and tried several times later.

Hence the grossly inflated number of calls being used as an excuse for poor planning.

Approximately 30 years ago my wife worked as a doctors receptionist in Buckinghamshire If her telephone rang more than three times the manageress would fly out of her office to find out why it hadn’t been answered. Her mantra was each call could be serious with the patient suffering a stroke or heart attack.

Mr Grinsted claims that improvements have been made and appears satisfied that the average call to VMC is answered in nine minutes.

By a rough calculation that is 174 rings. I am sorry Mr Grinsted but this is totally unacceptable. Please aim much higher and provide us with the service we deserve.