A DUNFERMLINE man believes Bellyeoman Surgery is "failing its patients" after its administration system prompted him to go private.

The resident, who wished to remain anonymous, was in need of a repeat prescription but his experience with the surgery led to him ordering his prescription elsewhere.

He believes the process would be "extremely distressing" to elderly patients, and said the surgery "failed me" on every attempt.

He told the Press about his experience, which lasted over several days last week.

He stated: "In need of a repeat prescription, I called Bellyeoman Surgery on Monday of last week.

"I was able to get through on the second day of trying but was told that I had called the wrong number and would need to call the 'Prescriptions Line'.

"The prescription line is closed for lunch each day (open Monday-Friday, 10.30am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-3.30pm) but I'm very lucky because I work flexible hours.

"I tried for two further consecutive days but was unable to connect.

"Using my smartphone, I decided to order online but was led down a convoluted registering process, which I abandoned.

"When I tried again later, I was unable to access the online account because I was 'already registered' but I couldn't retrieve my password. I don't enjoy technology so I decided to walk to the surgery and order my prescription in person. I was met by a sign in the lobby instructing me not to do this.

"I explained to the lady at reception that I was unable to get through on the phone or order online, so she wrote out, by hand, the most unwieldy email address I have ever seen. It was 32 characters long, replete with numbers, hyphens and dots. It looked, to me, as if it were designed to be forgotten!"

He continued: "When I got home, I carefully typed in the address and ordered my prescription. Moments later, I received an email titled 'Delivery Failure Notice '. The address the lady had given me was wrong.

"Finally, I decided to call the pharmacy to ask them to order the prescription on my behalf. I was advised that this method would take much longer.

"The pharmacy also told me that they had to cope with a high volume of calls like mine.

"It is clear that the Bellyeoman Surgery admin system is failing its patients."

He said that if it was an elderly patient or someone requiring an urgent prescription, the process would have been frustrating.

"I am able-bodied, of sound mind and not in any pain," he said.

"Not all patients are in that category, most are elderly, and will find this process extremely distressing.

"In an effort to get a simple repeat prescription, I tried to access the system through four points of contact at Bellyeoman Surgery, and each one failed me.

"Only on the fifth attempt, and by going to a private pharmacy, was I able to get my prescription ordered, and much later than I had hoped."

He went on to suggest that email addresses for surgeries should be "significantly shorter and easier to transcribe" and added that business cards could be printed so that admin staff didn't need to handwrite the address, and risk making errors.

Dr Helen Hellewell, associate medical director for the Fife Health and Social Care Partnership, responded: “Medical practices in Scotland continue to operate within national guidance to limit the numbers of patients attending practices at any given time to reduce the opportunity for vulnerable patients to catch COVID-19.

“While individual practices are responsible for how they manage repeat prescriptions, Bellyeoman Surgery offers a range of options in which patients can order medications, including dedicated phone line and email address. All of these options are detailed within a few clicks on the practice website – www.bellyeomansurgery.co.uk – and many hundreds of patients at the practice order repeat medicines each week using these methods.

“Much like the rest of the country, medical practices in Fife remain under considerable pressure due to a rise in the numbers of patients requiring care and treatment.

"For that reason, patients are asked to order medicines at least a week ahead of when they would expect to run out to allow practices sufficient time for these requests to be processed.”