Staff at a Norfolk doctors' surgery have apologised to their patients following a day of "chaos" at the weekend.

Partners at Fakenham Medical Practice (FMP) published an open letter via social media on Monday, September 26, in which they said sorry for the lengthy delays experienced by dozens of people on Saturday morning.

Many reported having to wait up to two hours for booked Covid boosters and other health checks, while some were forced to reschedule altogether.

The FMP letter says delays were caused by two problems "outside of our control". The first of these concerned patients apparently turning up too early for appointments.

It states: “Firstly, we had many patients - who had booked later times in the day - arrive earlier for their appointment. Some up to five hours earlier.

"We are unable to turn these patients away due to the issues this causes and it is unfortunate to say that, even if the volunteers in the car park ask for appointment times, patients lie to them.

“We cannot verify this at this point as we would cause even more disruption to the town with delays. All we can do is plead with patients to arrive only 10 minutes before your appointment time."

Doctors revealed there was also an issue with the national NHS system which records Covid vaccinations.

This only became apparent to FMP three days before Saturday's clinic, they wrote.

“The clinical system used to record the vaccines was changed by NHS England, which meant that the [FMP] administrators had double the workload, resulting in longer times in the rooms," the letter added.

FMP said it had raised concerns with NHS England and has been told further changes "will be coming".

Throughout the day on Saturday, various posts on Facebook warned people of lengthy delays at the surgery and a build-up of traffic in the area.

In a bid to avoid further disruption, Fakenham Medical Practice has pledged to lengthen appointments and book in fewer patients on future vaccination clinic days.

Partners said they were committed to vaccinating as many patients as possible to prevent them from having to travel further afield, but urged people not to take out frustrations on staff and volunteers.