Ballymoney GP practice takes to social media to call for public support saying 'we've never worked harder'
A Ballymoney GP practice has taken to social media to list the number of phone calls it takes in just one week and to call for public support.
The manager of Ballymoney Family Practice, Nuala Lamont, told the BBC Radio Ulster programme Good Morning Ulster on Wednesday, October 8, that she decided to make a post on social media to show the public that the number of calls taken, prescriptions handled, letters written and appointments allocated are now “off the scale”.
The practice’s Facebook post read: “At present GP practices are constantly under scrutiny from the General Public but the truth is we’ve never worked harder. Here are a few figures to help patients understand why the phone lines are busy and why it takes 48 hours to process a prescription.
"Last week from Monday 29/9/25 to Friday 03/10/25 there were:
- 2088 telephone calls answered (averaging 56 calls per hour)
- 7344 items of prescription processed, this via the voicemail service/online/paper requests
- hundreds of patients arriving at the reception desk each day
- 1429 incoming laboratory results
- 1992 appointments carried out in Ballymoney Family Practice during the week
- 798 individual letters coming from hospital and other outside agencies which staff gave to scan and GPs to action
“This doesn’t include the mammoth registration tasks that take place behind the scenes, preparation of medical records, sorting of post and many more tasks which are unseen but vital to running your GP Practice.
"We are very lucky that the good people of Ballymoney support us on a daily basis. We again ask for your continued support so that we can maintain a safe and efficient service to our patients as we start a busy week ahead. Remember a kind word to the staff means so much.”
Speaking on Radio Ulster, Ms Lamont said she just wanted to get the message out to patients just how busy the practice is.
"My staff and staff throughout all the GP practices in Northern Ireland are working harder than ever before.”
She said it was frustrating to look at social media and read negative comments aimed at the health service and GP practices in particular but added: "We are very lucky in Ballymoney that our patients are very supportive.”