A DIABETIC woman can't get through to her doctors surgery to make an appointment after receiving a letter saying she needs to get suspected high blood pressure checked.

Rosemary Walker was surprised to receive the letter from St John’s House Medical Centre on Monday as she hasn’t had her blood pressure checked since January when the levels were okay.

However, the 62-year-old has been trying ever since to call her surgery for an appointment, but the line is always busy and on one occasion she was left on hold for over 20 minutes.

“A letter came on Monday asking me to make an appointment because my blood pressure results are high and need to be checked by a health care professional,” explained Mrs Walker, who has Type 2 Diabetes.

She said when it was last checked in June during a routine check-up, the nurse said her levels were okay, leaving her wondering if the letter is a mistake.

“It might just have been electronically generated and sent by mistake or someone’s gone through my results again and decided there’s a red flag,” she said.

“But I can’t get through to check either way. Essentially, the doctor is telling me to do something, but I can’t get through to make an appointment.”

Mrs Walker said the surgery does have the facility to do a blood pressure self-check, without an appointment, but she is under the impression from the letter she needs to see someone in person.

“I don’t know if the lines are down, but I’ve even rang the emergency line for a home appointment and that line is busy too.”

She said previously, she got alerts and information through as text messages, but some weren’t coming through, so she opted to revert to getting everything by post.

Despite suffering from arthritis and a bad back, Mrs Walker relies solely on the bus or walking to get around.

She doesn’t want to have to take the trip to the surgery to then be told to come back on another day for an appointment.

“I don’t understand the system, it’s left me frustrated. There’s probably lots of people in the same boat and something needs to be done.”

She has called on MP Robin Walker to do more to help sort out waiting times at Worcester doctors surgeries.

“MPs should be seeing what they can do for everyday people about everyday problems, but they seem to have taken their finger off the pulse,” Mrs Walker continued. “They have probably got a private doctor and they can see them whenever they want.

“They are more interested in Brexit, every single one of them.”

A spokesman for Mr Walker said Mrs Walker was contacted on Tuesday and offered an appointment at one of the MP’s surgeries next Friday to speak to him about her concerns.

He said Mrs Walker asked for a Saturday appointment but was told Mr Walker does not have any weekend surgeries scheduled this month.

“In the meantime, the team in Worcester offered to take up her concerns with St John’s House Medical Centre and the CCG to see how we could help resolve this issue.

“Robin would of course be happy to take up her concerns and to offer a meeting as discussed.”

South Worcestershire CCG declined to comment and the surgery was unavailable.