SHP - Shirley Medical Centre

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 Online consult forms which were extremely useful (and saved the vast amount of phone calls) have now been withdrawn which has increased the phone capacity to astronomical levels.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

It took a month to arrange an overdue blood test and waiting time on the telephone was 50 minutes. I missed several calls from the doctor as I was not advised they where going to call me and no time given when they where calling. Long waiting times on telephones

I have waited for over an hour on the phone to the surgery but I’ve also waited only minutes . I have experienced extremely helpful receptionists who have gone above and beyond but also really rude receptionists who clearly don’t enjoy their job. However- when I do finally get to speak with a DR they are great! Especially those from Monkspath Surgery. Thorough. Professional. Reassuring.
Such a shame that’s it’s such a negative experience actually getting an appointment with them , on the phone or otherwise.

Very long wait on a phoneline and difficult to get an appointment. In most cases I dont bother anymore.

I have to contact the surgery on behalf of my elderly parent and dread having to make contact as it invariably involves a very protracted call of up to an hour holding the line (completely impractical when I am employed).
I admire how the staff have coped, but the 'system' is inadequate and time consuming from my experience.
Staff are very pleasant when you eventually get through, but you need dogged determination and a clear diary - I wouldn't want to do it if I were ill!

Since the formation of SHP, contacting the surgery for appointments/prescription queries has become an ordeal - can't get through to a receptionist, can't book appointments in advance, can't see preferred GP for continuity of care. Once obtaining an appointment the clinical team is great, but really really let down by inefficient and frustrating administrative practices including delayed referrals to secondary care.