A health centre has highlighted an increase in verbal abuse directed at its reception staff.

Oakley Health Centre said the abuse will "not be tolerated" after announcing changes to its appointment system.

The new system, which will start on December 9, has been put in place to address the "growing demand for appointments," due to more than 9,000 people now being on part of its patient population.

Oakley Health Centre said: "Dear patients, in response to the growing demand for appointments (our patient population has grown significantly to more than 9,000), the associated increased waiting times, and because of feedback from yourselves, we have taken the decision to change our appointment system."

The changes will include scrapping the requirement for patients to fill out triage forms.

The reception staff will now ask patients for brief details about the issue they want to address when they contact for an appointment.

The reception team is bound by the same confidentiality standards as the clinicians.

Most appointment requests will be addressed on the same day through an initial telephone triage appointment with a GP.

The GP could resolve the issue over the phone, arrange a face-to-face meeting the same day, or refer the patient to another health professional.

The centre will have the capacity to deal with 80 triage appointments per day but will close the triage once this capacity is reached or at 11am, whichever comes first.

The centre said: "Unfortunately, we can only stretch ourselves so far and there is no perfect system without more resources and manpower being provided for general practice.

"We ask that you therefore show all staff the courtesy and respect they deserve.

"Unfortunately, we have seen an increase in verbal abuse directed towards our reception staff in particular, and this will not be tolerated.

"We hope that you can see from this change that we are trying to offer the best service we can to our community."