Newark woman recently diagnosed with cancer shares frustration over GP availability at Lombard Medical Centre
A woman recently diagnosed with cancer has slammed her GP surgery as the worst ever.
Denise Stewart, of Newark, was diagnosed with breast cancer at the start of October, but claimed Lombard Medical Centre told her no doctors were available to see her when she called for an urgent appointment.
She said she was advised to call back multiple times across a number of days, despite detailing her symptoms, which were later diagnosed as a blood clot in her lung.
“It is the worst GP surgery ever,” she said. “It seems it doesn’t matter if you have cancer and are struggling to breathe.
“It is no surprise that the NHS are struggling with resources when you can’t even get to talk to your GP surgery.”
Denise said she had been trying to book an appointment for weeks before calling out the paramedics because she struggled to breathe.
“I was trying to get in for about three weeks. I had phoned up the surgery and it took an hour to get through. When I finally did, the receptionist said no doctors were there and I needed to call again at 8am the next day, and it went on.
“Why is it getting harder to speak to a doctor? I explained I had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and that I had been seen by paramedics, but the receptionist wasn’t interested.”
She was diagnosed with a blood clot on the lung and was sent for a heart scan and an ECG.
Denise said her concerns did not lie with the doctors at the surgery, but the difficulty in getting in to see them.
“There is a huge thing on the news about not getting through to the doctors at the minute.
“The first port of call should be the doctors for everybody, but people are struggling.”
A spokesman for Lombard Medi-cal Centre said: “Due to patient confidentiality we cannot go into details, however we have evidence that this statement is not true.
“We do have a complaints process and patients can contact NHS England if they do not feel they have had the best care.
“We have been operating all throughout the pandemic and have worked really hard to maintain and improve our services as well as working to deliver covid vaccines.”
