Masham & Kirkby Surgery

09/07/2025

22/04/2025

We are currently experiencing IT issues and having already had over 100 inbound calls this morning we would kindly request anyone to wait until later in the week for any non-urgent queries or appointment requests. Many thanks for your understanding.

04/09/2024

01/08/2024

Read more about the challenges and what we are asking for… https://www.bma.org.uk/our-campaigns/gp-campaigns/patients/gps-are-on-your-side

02/07/2024

Dear patients, as we approach the general election, the NHS and specifically General Practice will likely be mentioned a lot. GPs all over the country are seeking to ensure that whoever wins the election realises that General Practice is woefully under-funded and our patients deserve better. Please keep an eye on our social media over the coming weeks for more info.
Best wishes
Dr’s Akester, Roberts, Gardner and Freer

05/05/2023

It’s been a particularly busy and difficult day at the surgery.

We are aware that there has been social media discussion about the practice, and that people are conscious that waiting times for appointments and prescriptions are longer than any of us would wish.

As a surgery, we aren’t allowed the right to reply directly to individuals complaining online to explain our side of the issue, as we are bound by rules around confidentiality.

But our staff are exhausted, have worked well beyond their job descriptions for a number of years and we want to make a statement about the reality of the current situation.

What we can confirm is that for several years now, we have been filling as many appointments as we can create. On a daily basis we breach the designated “safe limits” for number of patient contacts per doctor/nurse daily, and have a crammed list of extra queries and concerns that we try and ensure we address too. The last thing we want is for anyone to be left without help - but the issue of resourcing of primary care is outside our control, and what patients experience is the overall mismatch between demand and funding of primary care.

We are fully “open” with a mix of telephone and face to face appointments, with both available as it allows us to offer more total appointments daily. We would never want to refuse a request for a face to face appointment - but clearly we have to have some way of triaging which patients need seeing on the same day, versus non urgent issues which may wait.

For context, even commencing chemotherapy in the current NHS can take several weeks. Non urgent issues in general practice unfortunately tend to need to wait 3/4 weeks for a routine bookable slot, with the understanding that if the issue becomes more urgent in the meantime then there are same day appointments if needed.

All the staff have felt under significant strain in recent years as our workload has got higher and higher. We do our very best to continue to serve the community well, despite having ever increasing demand and diminishing resources.

It is always a shame when this change is misunderstood as being because staff aren’t working hard enough, as opposed to running well beyond capacity and doing their best to bridge the gap between supply and demand by adding extras, working through lunch, staying late, and doing additional work in their remaining free time.

24/12/2022

Christmas can be a difficult time of year for anyone who has experienced or is experiencing grief.

There is no timetable for how long grief lasts, or how you should feel at a particular time of year. But remember, you aren't alone. For support visit: https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/feelings-symptoms-behaviours/feelings-and-symptoms/grief-bereavement-loss/