We apologise for the increased difficulty getting through on our telephone lines. As you are aware this is not the usual service we generally provide and are so very sorry for the waiting times.  There have been increased pressures on our telephone lines during the pandemic. More patients are calling in to the practice now rather than visiting us and this is creating longer waiting times for our incoming calls. Additionally some calls are taking much longer than others due to the nature of calls with multiple requests by callers. Covid vaccination queries are also featuring highly on the reasons for increased calls at the moment.

This is a very busy surgery and the telephone can be constantly engaged between 8.00am and 10.30am and from 14.00 – 16.00. We have 10 available incoming lines which form the queuing system, beyond the 10 calls patients receive an engaged tone.

If you are not trying to book an urgent appointment please try to avoid ringing between these times if you can.

We are limited by the number of staff we have to answer your calls, but we have increased this during the busiest times of the day.

We have enclosed a report from the telephone system showing the answered calls per week. We are increasing our call answering further to assist at busy times of the day.

All external Health Care Providers have been given a direct number to call the Practice to avoid increasing the phone pressures further

There are other ways of contacting us if your request is a of a routine nature, you can email us at oldmillsurgery@nhs.net or go to our website www.oldmill.gpsurgery.net and use our online access link accuRx (Contact us online)

We will be switching back on our online appointment booking system at the beginning of June which will allow those online users to access appointments once again which will reduce the pressure on our telephone lines.

Please accept our sincere apologies but please rest assured we are continually answering calls as quickly as we possibly can.