Requesting the help of mumsnet again please. They never called us back. We are still unable to book.
My husband tried phoning this morning and couldn't get through. The phone kept going dead when his turn was due. He managed to get through over lunch using my phone. He spoke to a young lad on reception who said he could see it was flagged but no one had looked at it yet. He asked why the practice manager hadn't called him back and he didn't know. He couldn't give a timeframe for when it would happen. So I spoke and explained we were keen for it to be soon so my husband would have some protection built up before the children return to school. He said "it should be before they go back to school" ... Which obviously wasn't what we meant at all and worried us they have no intention of looking at this anytime soon. I asked about how we lodge a complaint as we kept getting mixed messages and we didn't know where else to turn. He didn't know and went to ask. Well the next thing we know another woman comes blazing onto the line shouting that they don't have any vaccine. We both looked at each other in disbelief and so I tried to explain we didn't want to book there and she had her lines crossed. At which point she shouted that I shouldn't shout at her. I hadn't been shouting (I checked with my husband afterwards) and tried again to explain but she just wasn't prepared to listen. Apparently it has been flagged with the practice manager and will get done at some point and they have other people calling about this all the time and they are busy.
I tried to explain again that we were told by 119 that the surgery need to update his file and we can't get it done until they do and they had promised us yesterday it would be done and we would get a call. She tried to tell me they aren't doing his group yet. Which I pointed out can't be true as 119 confirmed he should have had an invite and anyway we were happy to travel, he just needed a doctor to look at his file. She didn't respond. She told us to put any complaints in writing.
We now both feel this GP's surgery no longer resembles the lovely practice we signed up to. We also have the issue that my husband should have been vaccinated and communication seems to have broken down. They can't give any sort of rough timeframe. I feel we have been nothing but polite and I have to say having a shouty woman on the other end of the phone has upset me a bit.
I've been looking for the past half hour trying to find some way around this and I can't. I could put a complaint in but I imagine it will simply be ignored and actually won't get what we want anyway.
Somebody posted this link yesterday (www.leedsccg.nhs.uk/feedback/do-you-have-a-complaint/) and we tried that number. The chap we spoke to was lovely but completely useless. He said a doctor needs to look at his file (which we already knew). He said to make an appointment with the doctor about something unrelated and then ask. I asked what if he can't get one but he said "just keep trying".
We have since done this (or at least put in the request). However past lockdown experience suggests this could take a week or more (if he gets one at all). I'm worried that we are drifting ever closer to the schools going back and we can't afford the fine.
I'm honestly just worn out with it all and embarrassed to admit I had a little cry after that phone call. I'm so worried he's just going to be missed and there seems to be no way to get anyone to look at it.
Help. Are we stuck or is there something else we can try? We'd obviously like to switch doctors after all of this but I think that would be unhelpful at the moment.