I am writing to express my concerns regarding the Fisher Medical Centre, now controlled and enveloped by an entity known as Modality.

When I first moved to the area over 40 years ago, I had a wonderful doctor named Doctor Fisher. He was always available to see me and if I was too sick to come to the clinic, he would come to me. However, the situation has changed drastically since then.

Modality, which claims its purpose is to streamline access to an appropriate GP, has effectively built a near insurmountable eight metre wall between me and my beloved Fisher Medical Centre.

It is impossible to contact the centre without climbing this wall, which, believe me is a significant barrier for those who are not fit or tech-savvy. Making an appointment is a nightmare, as the only option is to navigate a complex online document or stay on the line.

I took a quick look at the internet appointment application form and decided to ‘stay on the line’. I held on for one-and-three-quarter-hours. When I finally spoke to someone, it was not a member of the Fisher Medical Centre staff, but rather a Modality employee who was not even on-site.

The doctor who finally called me back was unknown and it occurred to me that I had no evidence that I was talking to the Fisher Medical Centre; they could have been calling from anywhere in the world. All they needed was a computer and an internet connection to my files. For all I knew, the Fisher Medical Centre had been demolished to make way for ‘affordable’ housing.

I am worried that the NHS is being run down to the point of being almost worthless, and that private companies like Modality are ‘softly, softly’ taking over. It is unclear who is behind Modality, but there are rumours of links to a group of businessmen in the Midlands and, behind them, a large American organisation.

Finally, I find it alarming that the voice on the phone warns me not to be rude or discourteous, or my call would be cut off. That felt like a threat, and it is not the kind of treatment I expect from a medical centre.

Patrick Dowman

Skipton

 

Response: A spokesman for Fisher Medical Centre said: "As a result of the multiple bank holidays in May, all Primary Care providers and local A&E departments have been experiencing an extremely high level of demand that has impacted the length of time patients are having to wait on the phones.

"To improve the resilience of our phone answering capacity across all our sites in Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven, we have enabled our patient services teams to answer calls for all sites at peak times. This may mean that if a patient calls Fisher Medical Centre, their call may be answered by a member of the team at a different location. All our team members are trained to answer the phone in the same way and receive regular training. 

"The new patient access system enables our GPs to clinically assess queries more safely and efficiently than ever before. Making sure the sickest patients are prioritised first. In the short term, we are exploring increasing our call handling capacity further to try and reduce the wait on the phones, but the more patients that are able to complete their query online the shorter the phone queue will be.

"Modality is not a corporate entity, but a partnership of GPs working together to provide sustainable and innovative GP services to our local communities."

They added that the message asking patients to be courteous was necessary to minimise the amount of abuse staff receive over the phone.