Students struggle to book appointments at the Health Centre

A lack of available appointment times at the University Health Centre has led to some students being unable to see a doctor or nurse, even after calling over 100 times to try and reach the reception desk.

As of March 2017, there were nearly 19,000 patients enrolled at the Health Centre, with a total of 15 GPs, three trainee registrars and four nurses working across both Pink and Blue practices.

While these figures put the provision of patients per GP at the Centre above the 2014 regional average across NHS services in both Coventry and South Warwickshire, at just 0.8 GPs per 1,000 patients it falls well below the 2015 national average for number of physicians per 1,000 patients, 2.8. A NHS Confederation report compared this to 4.1 in Germany, 3.9 in Italy and 3.4 in France in 2014.

The lack of available GPs can make getting appointments at the Health Centre extremely difficult. Despite offering up to 882 appointments per week, the Centre is regularly unable to provide prior appointments less than two weeks in advance. The Health Centre, like the campus pharmacy located inside the SU building, is closed on weekends.

This usually means that the only way to see a GP is to call in as soon as the Centre opens on Monday morning, although even that is no guarantee.

Linda Mizen, Practice Manager at the Health Centre, said that “surgeries are fully booked most days during term time,” although “doctors see extra patients who present with medical emergencies.”

When asked how many requests for appointments the Health Centre received, the Health Centre was unable to provide any figures, but stated that “phone lines were too busy to collate.”

Daniel Byrne, a third-year Maths student, commented: “I have had some pretty bad experiences with getting appointments in the past. Some mornings I have called between 100 and 150 times to try and book an appointment.”

Third-year PAIS student Elizabeth Pugsley added: “Trying to get an appointment at the Health Centre is an absolute nightmare. It’s a running joke between my flatmates and I that we’ll just all put our phones on speaker and hit ‘re-dial’ until someone picks up, and then beg them for an appointment.”

“It makes getting prescriptions if you’ve run out of tablets impossible and it can be a really stressful position to be in.”