Frustrated patient questions whether Milton Keynes GP surgery can cope

West Bletchley parish councillor Nigel Long has been a patient at Whaddon Way medical centre for more than 30 years.

Recently, following an accident, he tried to make an appointment to be seen by a GP.

But after two days spent trying in vain, he had to go to the Walk-in centre at MK hospital for treatment.

Nigel says he was told that surgery had only three doctors available in the mornings and two in the afternoons – serving a huge number of patients.

He said: “For some time residents in West Bletchley have been raising concerns with me about difficulties getting an appointment at the Whaddon Medical Centre.

“The problem seems to be that the surgery now covers part of East Bletchley (Water Eaton) Newton Longville and parts of Furzton, therefore meaning it struggles to have capacity to meet the needs of local West Bletchley residents.”

He is calling for a review of GP provision in West Bletchley to increase capacity and also a commitment that the new Salden Chase development will build a

new GP practice at the start of development, so even more patients are not reliant on Whaddon Medical Centre.

He said: “I and my family have been with the Whaddon Medical centre for over 30 years and what seems to be the problem is the practice has expanded but the capacity has not.

"This reflects the need for more GP provision across Bletchley and surrounding areas.”

Whaddon Medical Centre is part of Whaddon Healthcare with Water Eaton Health Centre.

A spokesman for the practice told the Citizen: “We would like to thank Councillor Long for his continued support to our local community and for bringing this to our attention. We welcome all feedback.“We have worked hard since joining with our colleagues at Water Eaton to provide high quality Clinical Care for all our patients.”The spokesman added: “We apologise sincerely that despite this some patients continue to struggle to get the right appointment for them. We have expanded our clinical team and have increased the number of GPs to 13 as well as a large multi-disciplinary team, which includes paramedics/advanced nurse practitioners/physiotherapist and specialist nurses. Our Clinicians are seeing more patients than ever and, we are offering far more appointment options than before the pandemic.

"We encourage our patients to continue to contact us for the care that they need and to use pharmacies and self-care where appropriate.

"We are working with other local GP practices in the area for further solutions for how we can meet current demand.”

Whaddon Medical Centre has won general praise in patient reviews, with people praising the friendly staff, caring atmosphere and good quality care they have received there.

One reviewer wrote: “Whaddon Healthcare has provided excellent care to my elderly mother since she moved to MK in 2012. I rang today at midday and she was given F2F appt for mid afternoon. They have coped with pandemic brilliantly and still go the extra mile.”