PATIENTS have vented their anger over Swindon’s GP call centre 'chaos' as five of the surgeries affected came close to the bottom of the pile in an NHS satisfaction survey.

When asked in the 2019 NHS Patient Survey about their overall experience of making an appointment, patients at Eldene, Moredon, Phoenix, Taw Hill and Abbey Meads let loose.

Patients rated the different surgeries across Swindon of their overall experience.

At Eldene, the worst of the four in this category, only 26 per cent of those who responded said their experience was ‘good’ or ‘very good’.

And almost a third – 31 per cent – said they found it 'very poor'.

FULL LIST: Best and worst GP surgeries in Swindon

READ MORE: Swindon surgeries among WORST in England

The satisfaction of patients over making an appointment was a little better at Taw Hill and Phoenix, which both saw 31 per cent of respondents saying they were happy.

The five surgeries have been dogged by problems with receiving phone calls after the management of the systems were taken over by Manchester-based company IMH.

In autumn 2018, the company brought in a new call handling hub. Based in Moredon, it was responsible for taking all the calls to the surgeries, booking appointments and dealing with repeat prescriptions.

Patients complained of waiting more than an hour to get through on the phones. A number of protests have been held since.

IMH announced in May that the contract was being cancelled and it is due to end by mid-November.

Eldene patient Susan Lee, 83, said: “It may get better now they are getting rid of IMH as that was chaos.

"I know it’s been hell just getting an appointment. I haven’t been here for about a year and I almost expected there to be a long queue out the door again, but I was lucky there wasn’t.”

Bazil Solomon, parish councillor for Nythe, Liden and Eldene, said: “Eldene patients have said this over a couple of years now and I have championed their cause. The CCG are acting now.

"It is now a time of rebuilding public services as in local surgeries and to rebuild customer confidence. We are all customers of the medical surgeries and we pay our monthly NHS taxes for a great service.

"So let it be a great achievement as part of our British NHS.”

Of 23 medical centres, 16 scored worse than the England average, with only six making the grade.

The highest rated medical centres in the area are Elm Tree Surgery in Shrivenham, and Kingswood Surgery in Whitbourne Avenue.

The Adver contacted Eldene Surgery and Moredon Medical Centre and is awaiting a response.