PATIENTS have slated a York GP surgery as ‘abysmal,’ ‘horrendous’ and ‘almost laughably bad’ in reviews posted on an NHS Choices website.

The damning reviews have been made about Unity Health’s Kimberlow Hill surgery in Heslington where, as The Press revealed on Monday, patients have been left hanging on the phone for hours while trying to make appointments.

The surgery gets only one star out of five on NHS Choices, with comments from patients including:

*Impossible to get an appointment

*Shocking appoinments system

*What’s the point of a GP you can’t get through to

*Go anywhere else

*Useless, can’t make use of a doctor you can’t see

One patient said: “When you finally see a doctor, they are normally good. However, the telephone line and online consultation system is a shambles. Don’t expect to ever speak to anyone.”

Another said: “An absolute shambles. I have never had a more traumatic experience in my entire life. I have been in severe pain for over a month now and have finally given up. I filled out an online consultation and received no response for three days until I visited the practice in person to which I was told: “We are behind on our online consultations.”

Meanwhile, the problems at the surgery are set to be examined by City of York Council’s health scrutiny committee.

Chair Paul Doughty said he had asked for a Unity Health representative to attend the meeting on June 20 and for a brief report to be prepared explaining what had happened and what was being done to remedy the problems. He had also asked for the Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group to attend. Independent councillor Mark Warters asked for the scrutiny after being appalled by the problems.

The centre was asked for comment yesterday but no one called The Press back. However, it said previously the ‘unacceptable’ problems related entirely to a new telephone system, and it was trying to resolve them as quickly as possible.