Hathaway Medical Centre - Chippenham

Luke Hinds

The staff and doctors are nice and professional and have gone out of their way to help me and my family before. The problem standing though, is the most bizarre and dated appointment booking system I have ever seen. It looks like it was programmed in 1987, by soviet web developers locked in a government building to the north of siberia . It is the only appointment booking website I have even seen that literally has 'opening hours', it even has bank holidays and weekends off.

The system seems to function as follows, you login at 7.30am and hope to get an appointment, if not, well you just need to wait for the next day. There is no concept of booking ahead, only for the day itself it seems. Most people have taken to just physically travelling to the surgery and booking in person. I honestly do feel concerned about how the elderly handle this process.

The system seems to have been built by a company called tpp-uk, there motto is ironically "Clinical software to revolutionise healthcare"

92_SP (92_SPAMG)

Would zero star if I could!

Don’t normally leave reviews but had to as service is terrible yet again.

Answer machine gives the option to make an appointment and after being on hold for 30 mins I was told they don’t do them over the phone and would send me the link ‍♂️

I was sent a link to book but a new condition was not available ‍♂️

I’ve only been to the doctors a handful of times in my life and only book an appointment if I think I really need to.

Luckily I’m able to move surgery’s to the one my fiancé is with, I rang them got through and filled the form in less than half the time I was on hold to Hathaway!

Past experiences have not been the best either so I’m glad to be leaving and would highly recommend anyone given the choice go somewhere else!

Staff need to wake up they sound half asleep also next to your contact number you should state it’s online only to save 30min plus waste of time.

Richard Joy

This place has become a shambles, a 2 year old could do a better job organising this, what a joke this place has become. Was really good at one point really easy to get hold of and get the care you needed. Appointment or a review. But now nothing works, and what makes this worse is the fact I'm paying for this out of my wages every month. If you are thinking about signing up to this service I wouldn't bother I would look elsewhere. Useless is a under statement.

Adam Wojewodzki

This GP practice is actually starting to be unsafe. My wife had to fly abroad to be finally diagnosed with life threatening blood clot. Something which this GP should pick up routinely. 2 months later same issue occured and she has to wait 1 week for the appointment? There is no root cause analisys, the only goal is rush rush rush. There is not much choice as patients are actually locked to register at Hathaway or Rowden. We tried private doctors as well but even they are often blocked as they need GP to arrange referrals for example. If this would be a private business it would go down in weeks.

Keith Jenkins

The new system, still doesn't work!!

First doctors and nurses when you get an appointment are fantastic, reception obviously have to field complaints so I feel sorry for them. They seem polite and nice.

Problem is getting an appointment!!

I was asked to book an appointment by the doctor to look at the results of my tests (so important)
They provided a link, however all appointments for next 3 months not available... not one! So I rang up reception and they told me to try again tomorrow? I tried and ... hey no appointments, and so on and soforth? After 7 days the link goes dead so you can't book. I mean what is the point? The appointments are released in blocks every day which is about as inefficient and everyone scrambles to get one. Organised chaos! To the partners, there must be a better way than this surely?

Jenna Constantine

This booking system is shocking, and I work in IT and customer service! Their call handlers say it’s my opinion though. I today filled in their form, waited patiently for an appointment, went to see a paramedic and not a GP. Got detailed instructions of what I was being prescribed. What I got issued was completely different. Phoned them to raise concerns. Told that I have to go back through the same process of filling a form in to discuss the prescription I’ve just paid for! I’m driving to work at the time they want the form filled in, so it’s just absolutely ridiculous. I feel for anyone elderly or disabled who may struggle with this terrible system. Did no one trial it

Tash Lakeman

Spent 40 minutes on hold in a queue to “book an appointment” only to be told at the 42 minute mark that they no longer make appointments over the phone, I have not had a single notification about this, after having been a patient with them for nearly 20 years of my life. How is this system even remotely flexible when I need a fairly urgent appointment regarding mental health, when it says it can take “up to 5 days” to respond to my appointment request…

Simon M

In two decades of being registered with Hathaway Medical Centre, I have always had first-rate service from them. The NHS is facing incredible pressures, but the staff have always been polite, friendly and have done all that they can to help. I have no qualms whatsoever in recommending this practice.