The Chorley Surgery

This is my family's GP and the service has always been great. The staff are always professional and treat us with respect. Occasionally there are wait times when you come for your appointment but considering you are dealing with people's health I don't mind waiting!

Firstly I'd like to say that the Doctors and nurses are amazing... I have no issues at all with them.

What I do have an issue about is being able to get through to the receptionist, to discuss an appointment for my child... as the app doesn't recognise my post code.

Every time I call the doctor's, it is near impossible to even get through, then when you do, you still have to wait in a waiting/queue area...
I have been calling this morning since 8am, it is now 9:30am and I still haven't even got through... all it keeps saying, 'the person you are calling isn't available'.
On Thursday I called at 7:45pm as my son was going away on a trip and i needed and emergency prescription done, I got through to the waiting/queue area and by the time I did get through to the receptionist... they had clearly put me on hold... I was waiting on hold for 10 minutes, before I decided to hangup.

The surgery is a very good surgery...

However getting through to them is a huge let down and very unprofessional.

I have always defended the Chorley Surgery in the past, and have never had an issue with any of the doctors, who have all always been brilliant.

I have however been taken aback by the rudeness, unprofessionalism and downright unkindness of one of the nurse practitioners (Rachel) during a recent telephone appointment, which ended with her hanging up mid-call leaving me unable to access the medication I desperately needed that evening.

I tried to raise this with the Surgery, which was a pointless exercise as the complaints 'manager' Andrea Kershaw was clearly a close friend of the nurse practitioner in question, as she continued to dismiss my concerns in order to defend the practitioner. At one point she read something out that Rachel had written on the system during the phone call with the practitioner, and when I tried to explain that this wasn't correct and wasn't what I had said, and that the practitioner had made a mistake, the complaints manager advised that 'she wouldn't have put it if she hadn't heard it' basically calling me a liar.

I raised the point that the practitioner had hung up on me which resulted in me being unable to access my medication that evening, to which I was advised 'there are 2 sides to every story and rachel would probably say something different'

The Surgery really need to hire a complaints manager who is objective, otherwise what is the point in the process? I have been left feeling extremely frustrated and demeaned at the way i have been treated. I am a fair and reasonable person, and have been left feeling completely dismissed.

I would unfortunately advise strongly against going with the Chorley surgery at all costs and judging by the array of other negative reviews, I'm definitely not the only one.

It was my first visit to the surgery. I'm really pleased with the nice reception, compared my previous surgery, this is much better. Miss Ann Batty in particular was very kind.

So, very good first impression.

Receptionist are rude, can never get through on the phone or get a call back on the "great new advantage feature", they never work the appointments around a time that suits you, been waiting on hold for almost an hour and get told I should of walked down to see if they had any appointments rather than ringing and not getting through. Wouldn't suggest choosing this place if your looking for a doctors i suggest you look elsewhere

Impossible to get an appointment earlier than two weeks out (I've been trying for a week). If you do get one, it's probably at another surgery with a nurse - unable to do what I said I needed. I've made one complaint after my child had to go to urgent care because they refused an urgent referral from 111.
When I call and say I need an appointment, they receptions on two occasions have told me "well if you'd made an appointment last week, you would have it by now"... As if I should somehow be able to predict the future. 🤷‍♀️
Anyway, they have far, far too many patients now. I'll be making a second official complaint and moving to another practice.

I’ve been a patient here for a while. The GP is relatively easy to see if you call first thing.

I also moved my toddler here and they have been amazing with him. I called at 17:30 and they were able to give an appointment for 11am the day after(even though he had already been seen that day), no need to call at 8am. Good to know I can get my son in when I need to.

Good luck getting through on the phone. Then if you do get an appointment it will be running 20 minutes late, yes even if your appointment is the first of the day (8am) they still run 20 minutes late.