About 5 months ago, my G.P. practice was sold to another group of GPs. The receptionists left at the same time and the only constant was the practice nurse. I have no problem with either the new doctors or the practice nurse, but the new team of receptionists and admin staff are totally incompetent.
I thought it might have been teething problems with taking over an existing practice and have been a patient patient, but there has been no improvement.
Some of the problems have been:-
~failing to send a referral (it didn't need to be authorised by a GP) to another medical dept. for 3 weeks, despite a number of reminders by myself by phone and in person plus a couple of requests from the department awaiting the referral. I finally had to make an appointment with the GP and he had to order them to make the referral.
~failure to produce repeat prescriptions within the existing agreed 48 hour turnaround from receiving the request.
~sending electronic repeat prescriptions with items missing or incorrect medications on the list. This was for various members of the family.
~sending incorrect lists of medications that I am currently prescribed to other medical departments when I attended appointments with specialists.
~failing to send results of blood tests to other departments despite repeated requests from both the other departments and family members.
~the staff never 'own' a problem and usually blame absent staff when questioned why no action has been taken.
This is where I ask your advice. Obviously, this situation cannot continue. One of the family might come to some harm due to all these mix-ups. How should I make a complaint to the practice without upsetting the receptionists/admin staff and resulting with 'difficulties' when arranging future appointments? I have tried having a quiet word with one of the GPs and the practice nurse, who both apologised and promised an improved service, which did not happen. Have any of you had any similar experiences? How did you resolve the problem?
How much do you spend on yourself?