Time to change doctors.... again

Right now I am feeling rather pissed off and also a touch upset. When we moved back to WA in 2005 we started going to a new medical centre as the previous one had rude staff and we could never get appointments. The new one was also much closer to home.

As of today I have had enough. Over the 4 years that we've been going there we have had a number of issues - booking in for vaccinations and stating this at time of booking only to get there, wait 2 hours and find there is no nurse on that day so can't have vaccinations done; personal information being left on the front counter where other patients are standing and able to read it; stuffed up appointments etc etc.

Today was my final straw. I took Stephi in last week to get checked up after she was very chesty for a while and making no improvement. The doctor who saw her had seen her the week before when she had her vaccinations and thought her chest sounded fine then but reluctantly looked her over again and eventually discovered a red and distended ear drum so prescribed antibiotics and told us to come back in a week.

As I left the surgery I spoke with reception and booked an appt for Thursday - I remember very clearly saying that it would have to be Thursday as that meant I only had to take 2 children along rather than all three and it was the closest to being a week after the last appt. She confirmed the time with me and wrote it on a slip of paper which I promptly stuffed into my purse.

I turn up at the allocated time this morning and stand waiting for a few minutes. One receptionist is on the phone and another receptionist is doing her best to ignore any patients who may need her attention - nothing quite like pretending to be busy and then looking shitty when you actually have to do your job. Anyway, I say the appt is for Stephi and the name of the doctor and the appt time and she looks over the computer. Eventually says something about the surname being Forrester (ie Bold and the Beautiful) and I say "no, Forster" and spell it out to which she rolls her eyes and huffs. THen she says "your appt was yesterday so you've missed it"!!!!!

I tell her that I specifically made the appt for Thursday as it was the only day I could come and she says "well what does it say on the card" I tell her I haven't looked at the card because I know I asked for an appt on Thursday and she says "well there's nothing today - you can come tomorrow" in this rude, surly, bitchy tone.

At this point I'm seriously pissed off and once again state that I can't come tomorrow, I made the appt for today because it was the only day I could come and leave.

Now, this practice has a policy of charging for missed appointments so if I should get an invoice in the mail I can tell you exactly what my response will be. I will be writing a letter of complaint about the reception staff as I've had enough of their rudeness. There is only one who is pleasant and she unfortunatley wasn't there today.

I have to start searching for another practice now and have no idea where to begin. I want somewhere that bulk bills children but more importantly somewhere that I can get fairly quick appointments and that is fairly local as well. I hate having to start all over again but I've had enough.

Not only are the reception staff rude but I feel the doctor we now see is too quick to want to give antibiotics. At one point when I had Stephi in there at barely 3 months he had no idea what was wrong with her so just thought he'd write a script for antibiotics.....

The doctor we were seeing there before has now died (another situation where the staff were incredibly rude - the way I was told was nothing short of despicable) but he used to always run at least an hour late and mostly 2 hours late. He also had no idea how to use the computer system so was always "bloody thing" and "blast it" ing the thing every time he tried to do something. We would spend 40 mins in for a 10 min consult because he coulnd't get the computer to work. He was also fairly happy to be told what you thought and would run with that!

We've also seen a lady doctor at the practice and she was ok but seemed too busy to "waste" time on patients!

No idea where to begin looking but might chat with our neighbours soon and see where they go as they have young children as well

Big vent!