Sean Warwick
4/5
Top marks to the surgery for improvements made since my last post 4 years ago (see below)
They now have a call queueing system that actually works, and you don't even have to hang on until you are answered - you can can just save your place in the queue and get a call back when your turn comes up. Great time saver.
They also now allow you to actually contact them (only for admin matters mind) electronically via a direct message system as an alternative to calling. I can't say how well this works as have not had to use it on this occasion, and it's not clear if you can see the messages eg in your patient record to make them more easily chaseable etc, but a potential big improvement in "customer care" that they were previously weak at, I felt.
Their eagle eyed operator today was also able to spot that my stored email address was wrong, when she realised part of it did not correspond to my surname. That might explain why for years I have failed to receive any notifications from them about anything - disappointing though that during that time they've been unable to detect the problem, by capturing bounced/returned errro messages from whatever mail server my messages were wrongly ending up at.
Upshot of all this was I that within about 14 hours of noticing a possible alarming health issue on a sunday night, I had seen a real GP in person the following morning and left feeling reassured and considerably less alarmed.
She couldn't put me on the "urgent" list for rapid investigation, due to just missing the relevant criteria on some checklist or other (presumably set by NICE and out of the control of the surgery/GPs themsleves), but I guess you have to accept these things are set up on some scientific and factual basis and the fact that I wasn't referred urgently should be taken as a sign that it's unlikely to be anything serious.
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Original post from 2020 for reference
Fairly typical NHS experience - absolutely shambolic admin, terrible customer service, terrible online experience, terrible internal communication, massive barriers put up to get a timely appointment or just to speak to someone about something simple like a wrong prescription, which for me they invariably cock up every time there is any kind of change. Recently I was told by my GP to book an appointment for x days after a blood test. When I tried to do so at reception on the way out I was told "computer says no". There's no point trying to call them, you will never get through; today I couldn't even get in the queue to speak to someone, they just cut you off! The usability of the online portal for booking appointments is so bad it's laughable. I've had some good GPs and some pretty average ones in my time here, but the nurses and other clinical support staff have been very good. Recently they have been fobbing me off with a pharmacist instead of a GP to review my current health and medication. I'm sure he's a great pharmacist, but he's not my GP... Overall the clinical service has been OK on balance. The thing they most fail at is all the stuff that surrounds the care aspect. I've come very close to running out of medication on multiple occasions, not because I've not tried to order it in time but because it's been so hard to contact anyone about remedying the mistakes they make any time something changes. I usually end up having to go in in person to speak to reception or the pharmacy to get these things sorted out, which is just ridiculous. The whole system is designed to put the needs of doctors and administrators first, rather than patients. The result is patients being put through unnecessary stress and frustration on top of their actual health problems.
Update - they have now changed the booking system yet again to make it even harder than ever to get a timely appointment. Tried to book an appointment today online and there are just none available for my GP (which they pretty much insist you stick with). There's no indication about when new appointments will become available or anything useful like that. It's just a dead end.
