Sidney House & The Laurels Doctor's Surgery - Chelmsford

Cherryl L.

My husband and I visited the surgery today for travel vaccinations.
The nurse was extremely pleasant and efficient and helpful and is a credit to the surgery

Alice E.

As a family we always receive excellent service. The receptionists are kind and polite and we always have been given great care by the practitioners. Highly recommend.

Dan

Clearly no respect for anyone's time, moved into the area and needed to urgently register our 3 week old baby, told them our address and was told to come in and fill out the forms.

After doing this and arriving home we get a call saying the "operations manager" has said we are now not eligble to register there.

Receptionists clearly miserable as well, no response until they'd finished typing.

Simon W.

A disgraceful service yet again.been waiting six weeks for treatment to an injury and been told by rude reception staff I have to wait at least another 6 to 8 weeks for a scan result before anything will happen.meanwhile I am hindered with work,sport and exercise because they have refused the treatment I requested.seems we are just left to rot.
If I say good morning to someone I at least expect the same or similar in return.
A broken doctors and nhs.yet I have paid my national insurance.

Laura S.

I can always get an appointment by phone and I don't have to wait very long in the queue. I am often called in earlier than my appointment time. I received blood test results the NEXT DAY !!! Brilliant service.

penny W.

I would just like to say that the Receptionists are really nice, and in the main helpful, and the female Phlebotomist, I don't think I am allowed to say her name, but she knows who she is, is brilliant. We have a very nice relationship when I see her.

The only problem is getting through on the telephone which is a nightmare. I wish, like most patients, that we could just phone up and book an appointment to see the doctor of our choice, if possible, and not have this awful ringing up, and trying to get through, for a phone call first when you end up having to see that doctor anyway. Why can't we go back to how it was !!

Ann C.

I am extremely disgusted about the service provided. I called at 13.23 today, Monday 21st March 2022 and spoke to a female receptionist who refused to provide her name. She was extremely rude, unhelpful, patronising with no compassion to assist. She spoke over me and was generally unpleasant. I had intended to book an appointment for my son who is of school age to be informed that I could not book a future appointment for him. It would appear that I have to keep my son off school every morning until I can get through on the phone to establish if there are any available appointments for that day. All in all a very poor idea when you work and have children who are at school. I would suggest the service could be improved and the female on reception receive customer service training.

M B.

I have had a variety of experience with this doctors Practice.
I have been registered with the Laurels surgery at Boreham initially in 1999, before it was combined with Sydney House at Hatfield Peveril. Initial experiences were in the main OK and I often saw the same GP, occasionally an alternative if my GP was away or unavailable. Since the combined service, I have never seen the same GP twice in a row, which can be frustrating. When results of tests are returned the Surgery do not notify you & the excuse is that if there is something to be concerned about the Doctor will call. This is all well and good but the patient sits at home worrying that something might be wrong with no idea that the results are back This is very POOR.
The Main Failure of this Surgery is its Appointment Booking Process. In order for one to book an appointment there are 2 approaches available.
1. Call at 08:00 on the day you wish to see the doctor.
2. Log onto an online Portal & book online.
The failings here are a first come first serve service on the phone call, which on many occasions in my experience can result in being held in a call queue & eventually get cut off or sadly no appointments available.
Online booking once again is based on available slots. This is also time sensitive as available appointments fills up quickly & then you must wait until 18:00 the next day and start all over again.
This could be included in a simple “save booking for tomorrow” option that places the Patient in the Queue for the next day & then one must log in to activate it if still needed that way customers can conduct a pre booking using the “Save Booking” service then Confirm to make it official for that day.
I have asked why one can’t simply book for a next available slot via the reception team in one or two days. The excuse is that Patients do not attend the appointment thus wasting a valuable appointment & access to the Doctor for others.
I feel that a Booking fee would work well here, where you book an appointment, your account is charged £250 & if you fail to attend without a Prior call to cancel (2 hours before) then your money is forfeit & will be cashed. If you attend, the auto refund is issued. Nonattendance will very soon be discouraged & the service can be improved. The Surgery can also make additional money from those offenders that waste a Doctors time. I do appreciate that this will generate a slight admin overhead with customers making excuses why they did not attend, but strict Terms & Conditions can set out the rules legally & make it crystal clear to all. Customers that don’t like it can simply switch to another Practice. This will in turn make the service more efficient & self-policing.
Getting an appointment is by far the worst experience for the service offered by this Surgery.
The actual surgery experience once one obtains an appointment is in fact first class the staff are polite, welcoming & the facility is Clean & well managed.