Why patients at GP surgery in Gloucester think they keep getting phone calls from a sauna club in Rochdale

A GP surgery baffled by patients not answering phone calls thinks it may have found the reason why.

An error with the phoneline means calls from the Aspen Medical Practice in Gloucester appear to come the Liason Sauna Club in Rochdale.

The surgery said 'other than causing periodic embarrassment and few laughs at our expense' it might also explain why a lot of calls go unanswered, GloucestershireLive reports.

It tweeted: "Please be aware. Due to a persistent error with the UK telephone system, calls from us may appear to come from 'Liaisons Sauna Club'.

"If you live in Gloucester, and that caller ID appears, it's probably one of our clinicians calling you, and not someone at a sauna in Rochdale."

The Liaisons Sauna Club is in Rochdale town centre.

However the surgery has seen the funny side of the mix-up.

Its tweets on the subject included GIFs of Star Trek star Patrick Stewart putting his head in his hands and Carry On film stars Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Williams looking shocked above a caption 'Matron! Take them away!'

It added: "Other than causing periodic embarrassment and few laughs at our expense, it might explain why it feels that a lot of our calls go unanswered by patients who've asked us to call them.

"This does cost us time, which is not welcome at a time of considerable demand pressure!"

And when a Twitter user cheekily asked whether the club or the surgery would be more likely to get someone to answer the phone, it had another light-hearted response.

The surgery tweeted: "This is precisely the question that occurred to us Steve. Several of our GPs were starting to wonder why some patients sounded so disappointed when we returned their calls. Some were palpably crestfallen you might say...."

According to the surgery, the mix-up started when it switched its telephone system two years ago.

Source: www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk