The parents of a newborn Scots baby say they have been forced to drive to their local GP surgery to get an appointment after failing to get one over the phone.
Eddie and Roxana, from Bilson, Midlothian, claim they phoned their practice over 100 times in a single day in an attempt to speak to a doctor about their two-month-old baby boy. The youngster is allergic to cow's milk and needs a prescription of dairy-free formula milk.
However, Eddie, 33, told Edinburgh Live that Loanhead Medical Practice in Midlothian had provided an "embarrassing" level of care, dispensing just a week and a half of the lactose-free milk instead of a full month's supply. They are down to their last two portions and due to leave for holiday next week.
Eddie said: "They ask you to phone first thing in the morning at 8.30am to get an appointment, but imagine trying to do that when you have been up all night with the baby until 6am. There used to be a queue system so that when you called you would be given a number and eventually it would go down, but now any time you call it just says the line is busy.
"If you phone at 8.29am it says they are closed and bang on 8.30am they are busy. Our son has an allergy to cow milk and needs to be seen by a GP to administer a special type of formula.
"This has gone on for several weeks and last week, me and my partner both tried phoning every second for over 40 minutes, on separate phones. It was over 100 calls and we never got through once.
"I ended up having to drive from our house to the practice and demand an appointment which is crazy. When we were eventually seen by a doctor, he prescribed a month's supply of special formula for our son and sent it off to our pharmacy in Roslin."
However, upon arriving at the pharmacy Eddie was told it was only a week and a half's worth of milk rather than a month. Marketing director Eddie also claims that several prescriptions did not include his son's full details or name, so the pharmacy could not process it until they clarified all the necessary details.
He continued: "Babies need to be fed. We can't just buy the formula ourselves and now we only have two days of milk left before I'm supposed to go and pick up more tomorrow, but who knows if it'll be ready.
"It shouldn't be this hard to see a doctor or get the correct prescription. One of the prescriptions was then sent to a different pharmacy in Loanhead and when I went to pick it up they had the address but not our baby's name or date of birth.
"It's the GP's fault for not sending enough through to the pharmacy and it takes even longer as most pharmacies don't stock this type of formula, it has to be ordered in. We're about to go on holiday so I wanted to make sure we're not left short. When I spoke with someone at the practice, they said it should be enough for a month."
Eddie added that he has driven to the practice three or four times out of desperation in order to speak with staff instead of waiting hours on the phone to get an appointment. He was reportedly told by a receptionist that they were "busy" as a result of the recent bank holiday.
He continued: "They claimed it was due to the bank holiday but when I turned up they were all sitting having a laugh with each other. Not one of them looked rushed of their feet."
Loanhead Medical Practice declined to comment on the matter. The Health and Social Care Partnership for Scotland were approached for comment.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - sign up to our daily newsletter here.
