14 October 2026
Held at the Lingfield and Dormansland Community Centre
On Saturday 10th October
The speakers at the meeting were Lingfield Surgery partners Dr Rahi Chandarana and Dr Sal Qureshi.
Dr Qureshi opened the meeting. He presented a slide showing that 66685 appointments had been booked at the surgery in the last one year. Patients with multiple Do Not Attends (DNA) numbered 341. The total number of patients who DNA was 1338. The current routine appointment waiting time was 10 days which was well within the Government’s target.
Dr Qureshi talked about the number of requests patients are submitting. Over the previous year 24143 requests had been submitted. This was an average of 66 per day covering topics such as medical requests, repeat prescriptions, routine care appointment, fit (sick) note, test results and referral follow up.
The wider picture was that planning permission had been granted for the nearby Lingfield House site (including a new surgery) but due to geopolitical forces – notably problems in the Strait of Hormuz – leading to an increase in building costs, no builder had been appointed as yet.
It had been a tough year for staffing, as follows:
- Retirement of long term locum GP
- Impending retirement of nurse
- Resignation of GP due to ill health
- Maternity leave in prescribing team
- Leading to increased locum doctors
There had been funding cuts to key income sources and services such as 24 hour ECG.
The good news was that a new nurse had been recruited – although it was noted that this person would require training.
Dr Qureshi moved onto local healthcare changes, highlighting the fact that two week rule referrals had been changed to urgent suspected cancer referrals now with a 28 day turnround. Hospital wait times had increased quite dramatically. These increased hospital wait times across all specialities had occurred despite being aligned with Dorking Health Care and having access to North Downs hospital - due to funding cuts.
Queen Victoria Hospital was still available for hand surgery, plastics, radiology, ophthalmology but no longer for physiotherapy.
He added that they were thinking about using an AI telephone system. It would answer within three rings.
Dr Chandarana said there were problems with AI-generated complaints – they were of huge length and it was often difficult to work out what the actual problem was. He pointed out that every complaint is looked at at the partners’ meeting.
Questions
A patient asked why the phone system asked so many questions and made so many statements such as if this is an urgent call 999 etc. Dr Chandarana replied that it is important to ensure people realise that this is not a substitute for emergency services and, where an emergency situation arises, 999 should be used.
The patient also asked why do receptionists ask so many questions when requesting an appointment? It was explained that they are trying to identify the most effective solution, which could be a GP or potentially someone with a different skillset such as a nurse.
A patient expressed concern that computer cameras may be switched on in the surgery. Dr Chandarana offered reassurance that this would never be the case.