More than once, Rachel found herself waiting up to three-quarters of an hour to get through to book an appointment with her south-east London GP – just at the time she has a school run to do. “You call at 8 – at 8.28, you think, we have to go to school in two minutes, do I hang up now?”
So Rachel followed the advice on the recorded message on the phone line and turned to her surgery’s website. It encouraged her to “Book your appointment online 24/7 with Patient Access.”
But when she clicked on the booking button on the Patient Access website, the site informed her: “Sorry, your practice does not offer this service.”
