Share review of Newland Surgery
Tweet
Share
Newland Surgery
2017-10-27
Person
1
5
0
Written by a patient
Written by a patient 27th October 2017
I rang the surgery today to try and speak to a doctor to seek advice for a condition they’ve been treating me for, around 3 1/2 weeks so far. Well it would appear I rang the wrong number as every doctor ( 4 so far- oh that’s right, don’t expect to get consistent treatment from the same gp for the duration of your illness/complaint ) wasn’t there. So now I’m left with no gp to speak to who has seen my complaint, only a gp who I’ve never spoken to, never seen and she wouldn’t have a clue about my medical history.
So not only does this ‘GP’ practice not retain its staff for any length of time, the ones it does have seem to work flexi hours and make zero effort to be there for their patients. I find it totally disgusting that you can’t see the same GP for the duration of your illness/complaint, that not one of the GP’s work at the surgery full time, the in house dispensary for those patients that live a distance is closed more than its open because, and I quote ‘we’re short staffed at the moment’ and the receptionists are some of the most rude, obnoxious individuals I have ever come across and would rather stand at the back of the reception/dispensary discussing the latest Avon catalogue then respond to patient queries at the desk.
Can someone please address the practice manager with all of these concerns as they’ve been dragging on and getting worse now for years. The practice manager needs to step down or step aside as I have never known a more poorly organised, non caring, unprofessional practice in my life and it’s clearly run by someone who is in over their head.
I would never recommend this practice and I’ve seen it change since I’ve been a patient there for over 30 years. Sometimes change is for the best, however the last 9-10 years its gone to the dogs. If I didn’t have as many long term health conditions where the treatments weren’t tied between the hospital and the gp practice id have been gone years ago as a patient.
An absolute disgrace for a practice and every single person who works there should be completely and utterly ashamed of themselves for allowing their patients to be treated this way. Or is it just about that paycheck at the end of the month?!
10th November 2017
Response from Newland Surgery
Thank you for your comments. As a practice we do take all complaints seriously and apologise for your difficulties in accessing continuity with one GP. Across the country there is a national shortage of GP’s. Numbers of doctors training to work in General Practice have declined and we have had to adapt our surgeries to reflect the recruitment difficulties. We have a dedicated team of five doctors, two nurse practitioners as well as our outstanding practice nursing team. Our doctors are part time, but the demands of the job, have caused previous partners to take early retirement or move into different roles. Part time working will often equate to working over forty hours a week and we most certainly do not make ‘zero effort’ to be there for our patients. Unexpected staff absence can lead to shortages and on these occasions it is unsafe to leave the dispensary open for long hours. Our dispensary hours are continually addressed and have recently been amended. Our reception team are there to help you find the most appropriate clinician to deal with your problems. They will try their best to ensure that you can see the same clinician but this is not always possible, particularly if you feel you need to be seen as an emergency on the same day. We have regular meetings with our team and are addressing the response time for desk and telephone queries. Our receptionists will often have to deal with verbal abuse on the phone or at the front desk whilst trying to maintain a professional attitude and we do take great offence to labelling them as ‘rude and obnoxious’. We are proud of our team, all of whom work hard to provide good care for our patients. We continue to adapt to the changes that happen and would value any constructive suggestions on how our service can be improved. We have an active Patient Participation Group, which you may like to join to help shape our service as we move forward.