BBC Panorama reporter Jacqui Wakefield worked as a receptionist at an Operose Health GP practice.
For six weeks I worked undercover as a receptionist in a GP surgery owned by Operose Health, the UK's biggest GP chain. Most practices in England are privately owned by GP partners, but a rule-change in 2007 allowed bigger companies to buy up partner-led surgeries.
It's my second shift at the practice and already I'm dealing with a serious complaint. A patient came in and told me his GP had been absent and unreachable through his struggles with mental health. Last year, he had spoken to his GP but after this appointment he hadn't had any engagement from the practice.
I hadn't heard of a PA before this. I asked my manager and they told me they were like GPs but couldn't prescribe. I asked why we wouldn't just have more doctors and my managers told me that each PA cost less than half that of a GP and were therefore cheaper.Wednesday 20 April - The 'skim-reading' team
The doctor tells me it's an issue at the practice and that he had asked for time out of his daily shifts to talk through cases and support the PAs' official supervisor, known as the clinical lead. He says this was refused by management in the interest of "squeezing" the most appointments for patients as possible.Today a patient came in and complained that he was never able to see his named GP, who was also the GP director.
Unusually, we were told we could book some patients in for the following day. But that had a knock-on effect. With the following day's appointments now already booked, it meant people calling from 08:00 the next morning, expecting to get an appointment, were also disappointed. We could only tell them try again the next day.We didn't have a single day this week with more than two full-time doctors available for appointments for a practice with 20,000 patients.
Staff told me these were important documents - including diagnoses, prescription changes and urgent information GPs needed to be aware of. Operose said that on Tuesday 3 May - the day with no appointments - its clinical systems showed "there were five GPs working that day" at the practice, including one "providing additional remote cover". But when we asked if those doctors were available to book appointments with, the company didn't respond.
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