The Len Valley Practice - Maidstone

Bunty M.

I am very seriously ill. I have had little to do with the surgery before this illness. I have been rejected twice by reception staff;
I have found out later that help was available one of the times and it was policy that I should have been seen. One situation was potentially life threatening.

The mental health support is horrific. A call from a disinterested doctor who just asks what help you need rather than explaining what your options are and what is available. Only a box ticking exercise to follow procedure and clear a conscience. I later found out about services available to me via other sources who then asked my GP for a referral rather than me go through the pain of it. All of this could have been dealt with in the call.

A very random call from a doctor who didn't actually know why he was calling me. I asked him and he just rambled on making no sense whatsoever. I hadn't asked for a call. I contacted the surgery to ask what the call was for, again not interested in finding out or explaining.

Pharmacy staff can be excellent and really lovely to damn right rude, shouting out personal information about you to all those in the whole waiting room and beyond.

I regularly receive text messages asking for organs I've had removed to be checked. To review medication that I no longer take in connection to the organs I no longer have. I've raised the lack of sensivity and accuracy of their record keeping a number of times to only just have this rectified.

I am still at a loss as to how the appointment booking system works. I think it is only available to those who live locally enough and don't work who gets appointments as they are the only ones who can stand outside and queue waiting for the surgery to open then grab any available appointments.

There is no interest whatsoever in the experiences of patients. These are never addressed, fingers in ears no one is listening, again total disinterest. They really don't care.

Jennifer L.

I barely go to doctors at lenham , as you more chance to win the actual lottery, started calling at 8.30am and was deem no 15 in the queue, I also told you never actually go in there to book appointment.
But apparently they only had ten appointments!, so I wasted over fifty minutes to be told try again tomorrow or go to faversham walk in .
So they assume you drive and a car, I say hands down worse doctors surgery ever.

And going get worse with all extra homes being built , so I left with no appointment and have to suffered 😡

Debbie R.

Have been unable to get through for 2 days, when I finally tried at 8.30 as the lines open the a automated service said that all appointments had gone for the day and that was the end of the call therefore today I had to go to Faversham hospital which I have a mole on my side which has gone crusty and is bleeding. They looked at it and they said you’ll need to go and see JP. They need to look at it and they would send over the notes to the surgery and for me to go there on the way home this I have just done and I have got the same response. You need to call tomorrow at 8:30 so I said I’ve tried that for nearly 3 days and I’ve not been able to get through and I was told this nothing more that they can do. I have never in my life dealt with such an appalling surgery and I’m just lost words.

Lauren S.

Shocking doctors. Advised me to go and spend a further 4 hours in urgent care with my 2 year old after she had a reaction to antibiotics. Told me there were appointments avaliable on Friday but I couldn't book one until Friday... their level of care to patients is non existent and we wonder why urgent care centres and hospitals are on their knees. Mind bogglingly awful.

D E.

If you want a covid vaccine or the flu jab they’ll role out the red carpet, even make 4 hours available for walk-ins, and even open the Harrietsham surgery again for jabs !!
Anything else, you can’t ever get a gp appointment.

The pharmacy should be doing vaccines and you should be promoting that, but you’re making money.from the big pharmaceutical companies so you won’t, meanwhile people are in pain and going to a&e, taking up their valuable time.

mmm, okay ,

T D.

Good luck ever seeing a GP at this surgery. Just called to follow up on a physio appointment that I had some time ago as I have clearly not been referred as promised. There are no available doctors appointments, there are no available physio appointments, in a nutshell, I’ve just been informed once again that there is no available help full stop. This is not a one off, this is routinely consistent. My wife has similar experiences, Our neighbours have similar experiences, It’s just awful.

Seemingly the only way to even get a telephone appointment, is to run the 8:30 am First come-first served gauntlet, where by the time the phone lines are open you will be so far back in the queue that you run the risk of waiting for inevitable disappointment or being cut off, Which has happened to me on so many occasions now that I don’t think it’s an accident.

I don’t know what to think anymore, used to really like this surgery but the drop in service and availability over the last few years is shocking. Attempting any sort of contact seems to leave you feeling completely hopeless.

Ian H.

Managed to get an appointment however I had to go via 111 to get it as the surgery wouldn’t let me book direct. I turned up for the appointment 10 mins early, only to still be waiting an hour later, still not being seen. I walked out in the end. I will be switching surgeries as soon as I can, I’m not going through this again with another GP surgery that just wants the headcount to get more money from the NHS, with no provisions to actually help people.

Peter L.

Tried to phone reception at 2.55pm number 12 in queue, requested call back. 2.5 hours later still no call, phoned and chose option 3 secretaries. They tried to transfer me to reception. Guess what, after a few minutes of the phone ringing I was cut off. Basically where is the so called caring NHS. This surgery needs to be in special measures.