Library House Surgery

Cannot get an appointment. I recently moved to the area and swapped to this GP. A week before moving my previous GP had recommended a number of tests which would need to be requested by my new GP as I was moving area. All I want is for these tests to be requested but the surgery will not request them without me seeing a doctor and yet then go on to inform me they have no appointments and are unlikely to be able to offer me an appointment even if I call back in a weeks time. After discussing the fact my symptoms were getting worse and developing they eventually offered me an emergency appointment at a specific time that day, I could not do that time as I already had a work commitment I just could not get out of. I needed an appointment just 45 minutes later which they could not offer me as they had to offer appointments in time order and I would have to call back later to see if they had a later appointment. This is despite it taking more than 30 minutes to get through to them in the first place.

I've called twice in the last two weeks in an attempt to book a doctors appointment but have been turned away on both occassions. Reception staff can't tell me when the next available appointments will be, and on one of the occassions, they said they would ring me back over the course of the week and never did.

It's unlikely you'll be able to see a doctor at this practice unless you can convince the reception staff to book you an 'on the day, emergency appointment'.

Update 02/09/22: The response below is completely arbitrary from the practice. We ended up having to resort to private GP which did cost us £120 for consultation and urgent appointment alone but thankfully gave a correct diagnosis. The ANP as quoted below in response, did not diagnose anything on that visit and told us to keep taking ibuprofen and if symptoms worsened to return to her again. Little do they know how incompetent their front desk staff, booking system and overall practice functionality is. I am moving myself and our family of 5 away from this practice to a better practice in town. There's hardly any accountability at this practice, just this morning I have been calling non-stop for 3hrs and not once have I managed to get through to book an appointment. They don't even have any appointments online, they are as ancient as a GP practice can get in this day and age.

Original review: This is what privatised NHS would look like. Patient as young as a 6 month old with high fever of 39.8 degrees given an appointment to be seen for 4pm. It’s 4.35pm and she’s still not been attended to. Exactly 7 people before her and 5 that arrived after her have been seen. Where’s the system? If the surgery is understaffed or incompetent to attend critical patients they shouldn’t risk their lives by giving out appointments they can’t keep up with. I’d rather prefer being told to attend an A&E or an alternative surgery due to lack of doctors willing to attend emergency cases. It’s selfish, careless and unprofessional to keep a queue of patients waiting in the foyer especially those needing immediate attention such as infants with severe symptoms. Here I am with a 6 month old baby with severe fever, ear ache, burning eyes and covered in rashes. It is utterly incompetent, reckless and inconsiderate of the doctors and the surgery staff who are failing to perfrom their duties. A child, an infant more importantly should be a priority and if not a priority she should at least be seen at the given appointment time and AT LEAST before those people that arrived after her to the surgery. It’s 4.45pm as I finish writing this and we still wait. If anything is wrong with her I swear the surgery will be facing serious consequences. It is against the ethics of all the GPs at this practice. It’s shameful and has made me lose faith in these people who are meant to be relied upon in times of emergencies as this one. Pathetic! Finally it’s 4.50PM and we’ve been called in by a “PRACTICE NURSE”. This is unacceptable and I will be driving straight to another clinic or perhaps a private clinic even where an actual doctor can attend her given her symptoms, severity and age!

The next important thing I am doing is to deregister myself, the baby and four other of my family members from this surgery to a more reliable, trustworthy and professional surgery.

Update: Sorry to say the practice has gone down hill since this year. Awful awful awful staff and their management. No appointments. No calls answered. Constantly pretending to be busy when they’re just plain incompetent. I’ll find out whom I can report them to and do it later this week. This is unacceptable and they cannot be allowed to get away with it. They might be ticking certain boxes for audit purposes and to show it’s all by the book but I sure know how to present my case and I shall do just that. It’s appalling how people registered here are left to suffer.

Depends on what you are using the surgery for. It has pros and cons of course, there are never any appointments less than three weeks away at any time, there is always only one receptionist answering phones, dispatching prescriptions, attending customers, triaging and doing administrative work for the back office all at once, while a queue of people is standing in a small space waiting to be attended. They are not at all tech-savvy either, they do not have e-messaging system through Patient Access or e-booking for general appointments via MyGp mobile app. Most sugeries in the North West are enrolled to both of the above apps to make patient lives easier.

There are some positives too, the practice nurses here are fantastic, yes absolutely outstanding at their jobs, I have had to see them a few times over last couple of years and having consulted by at least 3-4 different nurses, I can confidently say they are really the best this surgery has got. GPs on the other hand are all young, nothing wrong with it, except they are little reluctant to study their patients history and symptoms, keen on jumping to conlcusions and misdiagnosing. I have been misdiagnosed twice thus far, making life worse for me once by being admitted to hospital's intensive care uni for 22 days and second time by aggrevating my symptoms and nearly scarring a tissue in me. So as far as doctors go, it's NOT the place to go to, but for all nursing aspects it is just fine.

Although the service is friendly and professional trying to contact this surgery is a joke, I've been try to repeat a prescription for days now no call back no nothing, disgraceful.

Claire and Dr Cairns are the best. The reception are busy but always do their best to help! Thank you

The phone number for the surgery hardly ever works. We really struggle getting any appointments for about 1&2 year old, the last time we tried we called 111 after the surgery saying call back at 8am in the morning 3 times over 3 days by that time he was that ill, he was in hospital for A week. There is no support as you go in and they tell you to call up, it’s a vicious circle.

Called well over 50 times across a week - not one time did I get through.

Been waiting over 5 months for someone to look at what I think is a broken bone. No follow up calls when promised, no referrals when promised and so far not one face to face assessment of a broken bone.

Absolute shambles.. how can they be that busy when you can't even call them

1 star cos 0 wasn't possible