Those of us who are patients at the Sunbury Health Centre in Green Street will be fully aware of the difficulty in securing an appointment on the day and may well have resorted to queuing up outside at the crack of dawn.
We heard from Dr Gill at the LoSRA AGM of the many logistical problems they face providing health care services to a patient population of over 18,000 in a building designed to cope with a third of that figure. The annual patient survey confirms the high quality medical care and services provided by the dedicated staff at the Centre but the battle for better facilities will run for some time to come.
In the meantime, the Health Centre staff, supported by the Patient Participation Group (of which LOSRA is an active member), have been working hard to make changes to the appointments system to obviate the need for queuing to get an appointment on the day. The new changes will come into effect from the 28th November and relate to how and when 'on the day' appointments are released for booking.
In essence, on-line booking and automated telephone booking will be available from 6am Monday to Friday and will be the best way to book. Reception will not open until 8am. The changes will be fully detailed on the Health Centre and PPG websites and in leaflets to be made available in the surgery.