Recently Launceston Medical Centre has come under fire due to a number of negative experiences had by residents of the town — some of these experiences have left people worried for their health and questioning the capability of the practice.

However, the practice says it is aware of the problems and is working hard to resolve these issues.

The Post spoke to a number of residents to discover what problems they have been facing when seeking medical attention.

One resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said that despite phoning on numerous occasions over the last few months, they were still unable to get an appointment. They said: “I’ve tried phoning multiple times to get an appointment over the past few months. Almost every time it says they are busy, hang up and to call back later, or puts me in a queue of over 20 people and I don’t have time to wait because I work.”

They added that due to the difficulty in getting an appointment, they gave up trying, assuming others were more in need of attention.

“I haven’t been told when I can have an appointment. The last time I did manage to get one was about six months ago but it was a struggle and now I just feel like it’s not worth the hassle and there are probably people in greater need.”

They continued: “Luckily my job has sorted us out with some level of private health care, but GP appointments are over the phone and they don’t have all my records. It’s always been difficult to get an appointment there [Launceston Medical Centre] but it has gotten a lot worse over the last few years and since COVID.”

This is not the only example of people struggling to get an appointment. Another resident, who also asked to remain anonymous, explained how difficulties getting seen by a doctor led to a progression of their illness. They said: “It took me eight weeks to get an appointment, I had a massive pain in my calf, I was phoning for seven weeks but every time I was told to call back.

“Eventually I turned up at 8.30am in the morning because I was having trouble walking after the pain had spread to both legs and even though I was limping, I was being asked if it was necessary that I have an appointment.”

Despite getting an appointment, they believe had they had an appointment sooner their condition would not have worsened.

They said: “If I had an appointment, it could have stopped the pain spreading to both legs. They keep blaming COVID but we can’t keep blaming it now! How long are they going to use that as an excuse?

“We don’t phone the doctor for fun, we need to be seen as soon as possible.”

In response, a spokesperson for Launceston Medical Centre said: “We want to reassure our patients that we recognise the difficulties many of you are experiencing in accessing services at the Medical Centre.  We appreciate how frustrating it is to either be waiting in a queue for your prescription or on the phonelines to get through to Reception. We would like to thank you for your patience during this difficult time.

“As with other NHS organisations, demand has increased greatly and although this is out of our control, we continue to try to improve our services and would like to take this opportunity to let our patients know what we are doing to increase capacity, what we offer as a practice and alternative ways of accessing medical help.”

The spokesperson said there are a variety of ways in which the practice hopes to resolve some of these issues. They said: “Within the last two months we have taken on additional clinicians to help support the GPs and see more patients.

“On top of this, as a training practice we have the benefit of having a newly-trained doctor with us who not only helps our patients, but gets the experience necessary to hopefully increase GP numbers in the future.

“We are also currently advertising for new GPs to join the team.  This is an ongoing recruitment campaign.

“We have also created a new role within the practice to help with communication and the wellbeing of our staff.  She will assist with recruitment and retention of staff which will in turn help our patients with accessibility.”

The practice also offer a remote service called ‘Livi’ which can be accessed out of hours.

“This is a remote service which we have offered for some years now and can be accessed out of hours to help those who work long hours or who are unable to easily attend the Medical Centre.  Due to the success of the app, we have now expanded our Livi services and have daily (Monday to Friday) remote clinics bookable through the Medical Centre.”

Following criticism, E-Consult has also been re-enabled on the surgery’s website. This is an electronic service for routine issues.

“This frees up our GPs and support team to see more patients face to face or over the telephone, including those who do not have access to a computer.”

In addition, a number of action plans have been put in place to deal with ongoing issues, including in the dispensary and reception: “Our action plan for the dispensary is ongoing and is looking at all aspects of the department.  Most importantly we do not expect anyone to have to queue outside for their medication or wait more than five days from ordering for their prescription to be ready.  We are looking at ways of managing this and of course in reducing the queues altogether. Staff are working regular Saturdays to keep up to date with dispensing your medication. We will shortly be releasing a patient information sheet to help patients understand the specific challenges we face and how we can all help to improve the situation.

“As for reception, this week we have re-initiated an ‘all hands on deck’ approach to answering the calls into the practice.  Our busiest times are 8.30am to 10.30am, particularly on a Monday.  All staff will be available to take calls and administration tasks will be done later in the day. If you are ringing for results or have a routine enquiry, please avoid these busiest times. Staff are also working extra Saturdays to clear administration tasks that were previously done during the working week to ensure phone lines are answered as quickly as possible.”

The spokesperson added that an ‘Electronic Prescribing Service’ is also on its way: “This has not yet been enabled, our supplier has informed us this will be available shortly. When enabled this will allow all prescriptions to be sent electronically to our local chemists.

“We are aware that a small number of patients will regularly express their frustration and occasional anger on social media. Unfortunately, often the messages they portray only serve to spread inaccurate information and can often upset or make many of our patients anxious about what is happening within their community, and especially their Medical Centre. We would urge anyone with an issue to follow the correct channels and contact the Medical Centre direct. We can then answer your query and often solve your issue very quickly. We are always very willing to consider constructive ideas that may improve systems and encourage our service users to make contact if they think they can help.”