SHP - Shirley Medical Centre

Call Navigators who are not medically trained should not be making decisions on whether or not you see a doctor. My relative was refused an appointment and ended up in hospital

Can't get through on the phone, Can't get appointments, Can't see a GP, When you managed to get a phone appointment they don't call you! Not very good really is it? In fact it's downright disgusting!

If you get through the likelihood of seeing a doctor is zero! Why do you have to explain to reception about your issues - it’s the doctors that’s are qualified not reception staff.

Despite all the assurances, the service is just going from bad to worse. It’s wholly inadequate for the number of patients. You can’t get hold of them on the phone as the queue is always at capacity. If you are lucky enough to get into a queue, you can be holding on for up to an hour. Online consult forms which were extremely useful (and saved the vast amount of phone calls) have now been withdrawn which has increased the phone capacity to astronomical levels. This whole system is not fit for purpose for a lot of people. It’s an absolute shambles and somebody needs to get it sorted out before there is a serious case review due to their negligence.

Holding for a call to be answered for 60 mins is unacceptable. Being answered by an unqualified member of staff and having to tell them what your medical issue is and they decide the next action, is unacceptable. Being advised there are no available appointments after holding for 60 mins and calling bang on the time they open, is unacceptable. Not receiving a callback from the Duty GP, because the process let you down and you weren't added to the call back list, is unacceptable. Receiving an 'afternoon call back' at 6.45 pm and it being too late for the GP to provide advice, support and signposting, is unacceptable. Not being able to see a doctor face to face following major surgery, is unacceptable. Feeling there is no point calling your GP with a medical issue, is unacceptable.

Despite all the assurances, the service is just going from bad to worse. It’s wholly inadequate for the number of patients. You can’t get hold of them on the phone as the queue is always at capacity. If you are lucky enough to get into a queue, you can be holding on for up to an hour. Online consult forms which were extremely useful (and saved the vast amount of phone calls) have now been withdrawn which has increased the phone capacity to astronomical levels. This whole system is not fit for purpose for a lot of people. It’s an absolute shambles and somebody needs to get it sorted out before there is a serious case review due to their negligence.

Telephone lines are full at 8am and its virtually impossible to make an appointment. Unfortunately all the practices under SHP are the same so I cant even move to a different practice. Considering moving out of Solihull due to lack of GP coverage.

No reviews on your medication also felt let down when my husband was suffering from cancer and passed away in September 2020

Holding on the phone for over 40 minutes then to be told no appointments....try again tomorrow, same thing again, full to capacity or in a queue for a ridiculous amount of time, again no appointments! What do you do, you can't even get to see your GP now

So poor neither myself or my husband bother contacting them we would rather just be ill, they do not care at all. From being prescribed the wrong medication to just not being listened too, hospitals have sent referrals back to the gp to do follow ups.... no one bothers and cant get in touch to organise ourselves