This morning (Monday) after waiting half an hour for a telephone answer, and although I pointed out the urgency of my situation, I needed to speak to a doctor after finding out that a drug I was taking had been urgently recalled by the MHRA as they contained cancer giving carcinogins, I was told by a receptionist that I could not have an appointment (by phone) until two days after my call (Wednesday). As I found out about this on the previous Friday night and the surgery and pharmacy  who supply my medications were closed until Monday, I phoned 111 and received temporary advice and was told to speak to my surgery on Monday. I did this but the receptionist, who is not a medical practitioner told me I could not speak to a doctor until Wednesday.  Given the seriousness of the situation I ended the call and spoke to a very helpful pharmacist who sorted out the problem for me. It is disgraceful that receptionists can make these decisions. Even if the usual appointments are full a 10 minute discussion with a doctor should not depend on a receptionist if the patient is in distress. I saw this gatekeeper's disgraceful behaviour, when I was in the surgery a couple of weeks ago, when a lady who had just seen a doctor and was on her way out asked the receptionist about the status of her insurance policy which she had been told to ask about if she hadn't heard in 8 weeks. As it was over this time, and she had tried phoning and using the e-booking system which told her to phone the surgery, who in turn told her to e-book an appointment, and this went round and round, and as she was actually in the surgery, her request was perfectly reasonable, but the receptionist said she could not give out that information. Why on earth not? The receptionist was very rude to her. The receptionist should be helpful, not intimidating or making unreasonable decions.  Receptionists should not be able to make decisons about the seriousness of someone's request.  Surgeries who are so busy should either employ more medical staff, or refer patients elsewhere. Just not good enough Langstone Way Surgery.