Attleborough Surgeries

Feedback

• Booking appointments

  1

  Submitted by Anonymous 11th May 2022

  I have not had a face to face appointment since lockdown, which I understand. However when wishing to contact the surgery regarding ongoing or new conditions I could only fill in the form between opening hours of 9-5. DO computers and forms need to go OFFLINE?! My symptoms and needs are the same when I fill in the form at 8-59am and 5-01pm While today at 2pm I go to fill in the form and it is not available due to high demand. I am happy to be triaged as to my need and sign posted to relative medical professional but THERE IS NO FORM Get your IT act together. Does it help or hinder access?

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback and we are sorry to learn of the frustration you have had when trying to contact the surgery. Unfortunately since providing on-line access to our patients, in line with national requirements for primary care services, we have seen our demand increase by over 100%. It is important that we manage this demand safely rather than simply allowing requests to be sent to us 24/7. This enables us to appropriately direct and advise patients when our capacity is full. We do not provide an out of hours service and there are alternative routes for advice, treatment and support that should be used when the Practice is closed. When we do find it necessary to close a small amount of our on-line forms during the day, we do provide advice regarding alternative services that can be contacted, along with ensuring that those with an urgent need feel able to telephone us to discuss their problem. The on-line system does provide many benefits and a high majority of our patients are very happy with the convenience of the access this provides and the additional routes of receiving a response, advice and treatment from an experienced clinician, including providing face to face appointments where appropriate and necessary.

• Brilliant service and care provided

  5

  Submitted by Rachel 27th April 2022

  10 month old was unwell within 2 hours of submitting an online form the Dr rang, and then we were bought into the surgery at a time that suited us for my baby to be seen. Dr Reed provided brilliant care, was very reassuring and kind. Thank you to the surgery & Dr Reed.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for this lovely review. Our Same Day Clinic team are a fantastic group of staff who work very hard to meet the needs of urgent on the day issues that present in our patients. We have specifically passed on your comments regarding Dr Read as know it will be lovely for him to learn of your very kind feedback. Thank you for taking the time to share your very positive experience.

• Quick reply

  5

  Submitted by Anonymous 14th April 2022

  I contacted the surgery using their online form today to ask for help for my father-in-law for a non-emergency appointment and I was very impressed with how quickly the surgery replied to me, they only took 20 minutes! Someone is going to contact him next week. Thank you for the speedy reply.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your lovely feedback. The on-line system is enabling us to manage the very high demand from our patients in a much more time effective way, which is also safer for our patients as waits to have a health problem reviewed and a decision made regarding sending advice or arranging an appointment are much quicker. While we understand that this is a change from the traditional model of every patient being booked to be seen, it is great to hear your positive experience when accessing our services for your father-in-law.

• Dire

  1

  Submitted by Tim 11th April 2022

  Where on earth do I start? It is simply the worst surgery ever: doctors who won't see you; doctors who don't check records when progressing health issues..... I really could go on. They have now seen fit to to change the awful website to something worse. Beyond awful...

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  We are sorry to read that you have concerns regarding the services offered by the Practice. We always welcome feedback and would be very happy to be contacted directly with your details and further information about your experience and concerns in order that we can investigate these further. The Practice uses a nationally delivered website which enables patients to contact as on-line, which is in line with the Government plan and expectations for accessing primary care.

• Have not had or supplied my right medical an

  1

  Submitted by Anonymous 1st April 2022

  Have continued to delay and hold up my efforts

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Unfortunately the feedback you have left does not make clear the issues of concern that you have. We always strive to help and resolve matters where we can and where appropriate, so please do get in touch with the Practice directly in order to detail the concerns that you are experiencing.

• Fed up

  1

  Submitted by Karen 28th March 2022

  Trying to get my blood test results . Going on line it says am I registered for online services i hit yes , it takes me to patient access which I have , where do I go from here ?. Messaged the surgery who replied with an online form . This is the second time I've filled this form out , once on paper and now on line . Still nothing . Can't get any response because I can't message anyone this week.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  We are sorry to learn that you are having issues accessing your test results via on-line patient services. If you are able to fill in an on-line form on our website www.attleboroughsurgeries.com explaining the issues that you are experiencing, providing your full patient details, we will be able to investigate this matter for you and hopefully help resolve the matter.

• Unbelievable

  1

  Submitted by Anonymous 17th March 2022

  Messaged on a Friday morning explaining I was in agony with back pain and unable to stand or walk . Was advised a clinician would call me on Monday as there was a high demand for services and if I felt I needed to be seen over the weekend to go to the ‘ walk ‘ - in centre - should I fly there perhaps ?!

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  We are sorry to learn of the issues you had on Friday when trying to access support for your pain. If you would like to contact the Practice directly with your complaint we would be happy to investigate this matter further.

• Unable to contact surgery

  2

  Submitted by Diane Smith 14th March 2022

  I was quite alarmed by the notice on the Attleborough Surgery website explaining that it was essentially closed to calls and online requests for advice until next week. Can this really be true? There is no way of accessing a GP for a whole week? This feels very unsettling and of great concern for anyone with serious health problems.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  We are sorry that you interpreted our automated response last week as essentially implying we were closed for the week. Attleborough Surgeries works extremely hard to keep our on-line forms open every day that our Practice is open. Many other Practices switch their on-line access off almost daily when they are full. We do however need to take a realistic approach to safe patient care and when we become saturated with demand from our patients above what we can manage , we take a responsible approach of informing our patients of what other services are available for routine issues and requesting that enquiries for non-urgent health matters are delayed, ensuring that we maintain capacity for those with urgent issues that need to be seen quickly. On these rare occasions that we have found it necessary for safety reasons to remove access to a small number of our forms, we direct patients with urgent health issues to contact our reception team by phone in order that we can assess and support them with appropriate care arrangements. I hope you are reassured that we are never closed to people with serious health problems that require an urgent response within our opening hours.

• Not good

  1

  Submitted by Elizabeth Morter 18th February 2022

  On Wednesday I spoke to a nurse practitioner who changed my prescription. I said ours were delivered on Thursday and she said ok. It wasn’t delivered yesterday so today I went to collect it. Nothing there. The prescription is with a doctor who will sign it tonight! It’s not good enough! It should be signed the same day. I spoke to a doctor in December. I mentioned having surgery in July. When I said I’d had deep brain stimulation she said that it wasn’t surgery! 1 I’m not a liar 2 she obviously hadn’t read my notes This still makes me angry. I was in theatre for over 5 hours, awake when my brain was drilled into, had 4 scars and 48 stitches and an implant in my chest. That was definitely surgery.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback. We are assuming that you are a delivery patient of the Practice from your comments and I thought it may be helpful to confirm to you our delivery arrangements. These are prepared and carefully checked by qualified dispensers and due to the volume of patients in receipt of this service, preparation for delivery usually commences several days before the due date. Where it is possible to intercept an already prepared delivery bag with extras or changes in medication we will always try and achieve this, but this is not always possible and with less than 24 hours notice this would not have been possible, especially with an item that was not part of your usual repeat medication, but a new prescription that required review and authorisation by a GP. I am unsure of the medication that was required, but we usually inform patients that at least 2 working days are required in order for GP review and issue. I am sorry that this was not clearly explained to you. Unfortunately I am unable to comment on the discussion that took place regarding your deep brain stimulation procedure, but hope that you are now recovered from such an invasive event.

• Prefer online to phoning

  5

  Submitted by Collected at Healthwatch Norfolk event 17th February 2022

  Okay, had not problems. I go online, it's really good. I prefer it to phoning. I can take my time to put it all down online and make sure I've given them all the information. I want to balance not taking up too much of their time. You get a response really quickly online. I send a form in on Friday, on Monday I got a response and I was in for an appointment on Tuesday. They've been quite quick, there's never much of a delay.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your very positive feedback regarding our on-line system. This system enables us to help many more patients much quicker, while also ensuring that patients can still see a member of our clinical team when appropriate. Thank you for your great review,