Share review of Patford House Surgery Partnership

Patford House Surgery Partnership 2021-07-14 Person 2 5 0

Yesterday 13th July 2021, I rang the surgery hoping to arrange an appointment. This was at 08.30. The phone rang and rang and every 8 rings I was subjected to what I can only describe as the patronising voice of the practice manager telling me my call was important to them. After hearing this for 45 plus minutes the phone went dead. Clearly not as important as all that!! I rang back directly and again was subjected to the endless voice telling me my call was important. Eventually after another 45 plus minutes I managed to speak to a receptionist who advised me to use the doctor link. Having done that I was advised to ring my doctor to arrange an urgent appointment. After almost 1 hour on the phone again I was about to give up but decided to drive to the surgery whilst keeping the call open. The phone was answered when I'd almost arrived there so I ended up waiting in the surgery to see a member of the admin staff who told me I could have an appointment at 18.15 or 14.30 at Sutton Benger. I decided on the 14.30 and saw Dr Bowen who was both efficient helpful and gave me confidence that I was being dealt with properly. I'm fully aware of the strains that covid has placed upon the NHS and I have nothing but praise for all those who have struggled through it to provide a service, however, I feel that the system currently in place at Patford, Beversbrook and Sutton Benger is farcical at best, dangerous at worst. I'm absolutely certain that the staff both clerical and clinical do their absolute best but having spent the best part of 4 hours just trying to speak to someone is ludicrous. There appears to be no clear indication of when appointments are available, highlighted by me needing a fixed appointment every 8 weeks and never being able to tell when I should ring to book one. I'm told one time that I should leave it until 2 weeks prior to needing it and then the next 4 weeks or 1 week. Working shifts can exacerbate the problem for me but I always end up having to "put someone out" to get it arranged. I never know if it will be Patford or one of the other surgeries I have to go too which again adds to the stress of arranging something which should be stress free. If this was the first instance of problems with Patford I would possibly have overlooked this but it is just the latest in a very long list of issues including problems arranging and picking up my repeat prescriptions. Although it may appear trivial to some having listened every 8 rings to, as previously stated, the patronising, condescending voice telling me my call is important to us and a receptionist has been informed that you are waiting, thank you for you patience. I can assure you patient is the last word I would use to describe how I feel. I feel that an urgent review of administerial practices, IT and staffing levels needs to be undertaken.

Apart from the cheerful and away from IT and telephones helpful clerical and clinical staff I would say everything needs doing better.