A GP surgery has apologised after a number of patients struggled to book appointments.

It comes after a woman contacted the News explaining how she gived up calling Sandhurst Group Practice after waiting to get through to the reception for more than two hours.

The patient who lives in Sandhurst has criticised the waiting times for doctor's appointment booked in at Sandhurst Group Practice.

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Since then, the surgery has apologised and explained there was a difficulty with the phone lines in the past week.

A statement said: "We would like to extend our apologies to all our patients who have had difficulties getting in touch with Sandhurst Group Practice during recent weeks. We have been experiencing issues with our new telephone system.

"Following a request from several patients and consultation with our Patient Participation Group, we had a call queuing system installed, but unfortunately there have been difficulties with the system allowing for an unlimited number of calls being added to a queue and at one point this exceeded 60. However, this has since been limited to a call queue of 20 to help reduce waiting times for our patients and we will continue to monitor the situation.

"Due to Covid-19, we have also experienced a reduction in staff due to shielding and self-isolation including reception staff. Our nursing team, which deals with smear tests (already 50+ booked for the month of October) and other procedures, is also currently working at a reduced capacity due to nurse isolation/shielding. We are looking at ways to deal with this in the interim.

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"As the country came out of lockdown, we saw a huge increase in the number of requests for appointments. Understandably, patients may not have called during lockdown; however we continued to deliver our primary medical services even though many routine services were halted."

They have also offered advice to patients wishing to book appointments for the coming weeks.

They add: "In light of the on-going pandemic and for the safety of patients and staff, all initial contact between our patients and the practice remains either online or on the phone, with patients only being invited to face-to-face appointments if deemed necessary by one of our clinicians.

"To reduce any unnecessary waiting times, we are also offering online consultations and triage system (E-consult) and would encourage patients to use this method, where possible, for getting in touch with us for non-emergency problems. Smear tests, immunisations and blood tests can be requested using this service as can administrative items such as sick notes. Patients are sent a text to book an appointment or relevant paperwork. E-consult is available on the front page of our practice website without the need to sign up."