Tain and Fearn Medical Practice phone line misery 'could ease shortly'
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GP appointment misery for residents in Easter Ross may ease "shortly" after NHS Highland gave an update on years-late phone upgrades.
Tain and Fearn Medical Practice took to its social media channels recently to answer patients' concerns over its phone and appointments system.
Patients have complained of being unable to get through to make appointments to see a doctor.
Responding to those concerns, the medical practice revealed that its two practices in Tain and Fearn each only have a single telephone contact line apiece for making appointments – despite NHS Highland leaving them waiting "for two years" to arrange installation of a new system that will enable people to wait in a queue instead of getting a busy tone.
Explaining the situation on its Facebook page, the medical practice said: "We are aware that there is some general unhappiness with our current phone system and appointment system and would just like to explain a few things.
"We know that the system is not ideal and would love it to be better but at the moment it is not possible."
"The phone system that both practices currently have only allows for one incoming line into each practice office. Therefore more staff would not enable the practices to answer more calls.
"NHS Highland have bought a new telephone system for the practices but we have been waiting for two years for NHS Highland to arrange installation. Hopefully this will be resolved soon. The new system should allow us the functionality for patients to wait in a queue where the current system does not."
Asked to explain why a new phone system bought two years ago to ease the problem had yet to be installed, a spokesperson for NHS Highland said there'd been a delay "due to funding" but that they expected the installation "to complete shortly".
The spokesperson said: "In order to upgrade the phone system the telephony infrastructure, which is managed by NHS Highland, needs to be upgraded.
"This infrastructure upgrade needs to be planned and, due to funding, there was a delay. We expect the installation to complete shortly and will keep the practice informed."
Meanwhile, the medical practice has issued advice to help increase the likelihood of getting through to book an appointment or receive medical results.
Its comments on Facebook continued: "The practice is always very busy between 8am and 11am with patients trying to make 'on the day' appointments. If you do not need an 'on the day' appointment then please try to wait until later in the day to book routine appointments.
"Please also phone in the afternoon for things such as results, prescription queries, fit notes and booking medicals."
They added that waits to get through on the phone system are not usually affected by the volume of in-person queries at their reception desks.
"The phones are answered in the admin office away from the front desk for confidentiality so requests for appointments are not affected by patients who come to the reception desk in person to book an appointment," they explained. "Occasionally we may have to answer the phone at the reception desk if we are short staffed due to sickness."
