A COUNCILLOR has resolutely defended a medical centre after it came under fire for issues with its appointment booking system.

Concerns have been raised over the Mayflower Medical Centre’s system after staff admitted the number of calls seeking appointments had been “overwhelming”.

And, without a proper queuing system in place for those telephoning, patients were having to keep trying to call back – further blocking the phone lines.

It led to frustrated residents contacting Harwich councillors in their droves as they raised serious concerns about continued problems with trying to get through to someone at the centre.

As a result, the council organised an informal meeting with the centre to hear what’s going on behind the scenes and see what could be done to remedy the issues.

After the meeting councillor and Harwich mayor Ivan Henderson said he believes staff are doing all they can to provide the best service they can with limited resources.

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“I do understand the concerns being raised by patients and their worries they can’t get appointments. There will be people who have medical conditions where they do need to be listened to as soon as possible, and there will be others calling up with concerning symptoms.

“Since the pandemic there has been a mass increase in people trying to call, having held back on their issues for fear of further straining the NHS over the past 18 months.

“I now get this feeling of frustration from the staff about how overwhelmed they are. All they want to do is help people and right now, they don’t have all the resources they need to do so.”

Mr Henderson said the centre’s bosses explained they are looking into getting a new telephone system which will have a queuing system in place.

However, he is worried there are more issues to come further down the line as winter descends upon us.

“I fear the backlog of patients is going to get worse as there is already talk of a delay in flu jabs,” he added.

“The centre will probably get overwhelmed when people call in asking when they can have their jab.

“I do feel for the staff and I hope residents can be sympathetic that they are going through an extremely unprecedented time.

“All they want to do is the best they can for their patients, that’s all I’ve ever known during my experience there.”