Attleborough Surgeries

Feedback

• No complaints

  5

  Submitted by Feedback collected by Healthwatch Norfolk staff 9th February 2024

  18 months ago my review would have been a different story, but the communication between the surgery and pharmacy has improved and it's now really smooth. I have no complaints at all. They are doing their best in difficult circumstances. Although I don't know how easy it would be to see a doctor if I needed to see one. I only have good stories about the surgery- they were efficient when the flu and Covid boosters were done.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank for leaving your feedback regarding the communication between our Practice and local Pharmacy and the positive impact this has had on your care pathway and medication. As a large Practice we have a significant number of patients who are eligible for flu vaccination and we cover over 250 care home patients and 150 housebound patients, so our covid vaccination programme is also extensive. We work hard to provide an efficient service and ensure patients have good access to these important public health vaccination campaigns and we thank you for your feedback on these programmes of care.

• Cannot fault my experience!

  5

  Submitted by Maria Lloyd 24th January 2024

  My issues came about in November. I had a call booked which lead to a face to face appointment at Station Road. This was followed by referral which happened within three days and a procedure soon after. I have had follow up calls from the surgery to see how I am plus further calls re medication options. It’s been very reassuring. First class. Thank you to all.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback and sharing your positive experience with the Practice over the past few months. Your acknowledgment of the hard work of our team across the many departments that co-ordinate the delivery of our care is greatly appreciated. We will ensure that our staff receive your feedback and thank you again for taking the time to share this with us.

• Website

  1

  Submitted by Anonymous 21st January 2024

  Practice website is ridiculous, why is it not possible to complete online forms outside of practice hours. The whole point in having forms on a website is to make it accessible. This isn't accessible if you can only complete the form during practice working hours! Please review this as its totally impractical.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback, which we always welcome feedback from our Patients. It is necessary for the Practice to limit the opening times of our on-line offer in order that we can manage our demand and assess patient need and deliver safe care. When our on-line forms were open 24/7, we often received in excess of 500 requests per 24 hour period, in addition to 10 hours of phone requests from patients received during our standard opening times. Many of the on-line requests were for minor ailments, but our duty of care requires us to review and responded to all on-line enquiries. In order to ensure we are able to support access for our patients, but within the our maximum safe capacity, it has become necessary to limit our on-line offer each day. Our phone lines are open 8.30 - 18.00 each working day when we are able to speak to patients to ensure we can appropriately assess clinical need and book patients according or signpost them to alternative services for their health concerns. While we appreciate that this does limit the convenience of on-line access, this offer is available to patients on each morning that the Practice is open from 7am, which we hope provides flexibility for those working or with other care responsibilities during the day.

• Fundamentally awful

  1

  Submitted by Rory 19th December 2023

  The whole website needs to be done from scratch the workers are underpaid, understaffed and overworked seemed unbothered that I was suicidal

  
  
  Leave a provider response

• Terrible phone manors.

  2

  Submitted by Anonymous 22nd November 2023

  Sat in a queue on the phone to the reception, when picked up the receptionist was extremely rude, no hello, I was already trying to explain the problem of my 4 month old and she kept interrupting me with ‘I need a name’. I understand it has probably been a busy day but there’s no need to be rude.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback and we are sorry to read your comments regarding the response you received when speaking to a member of our reception team. Our team have been extremely challenged in the past few weeks due to significant staff sickness, coupled with new team members in training, but we are sorry to learn that our standards fell short on this occasion regarding the level of customer service we usually aim to provide.

• Rude receptionist

  1

  Submitted by Anonymous 19th November 2023

  I attempted to sort out some changes regarding appointment booking. The receptionist talked to me so fast and unclearly that I had difficulty understanding her. Therefore, I asked her politely to slow down her speech. She became rude, raised her voice, and made sarcastic comments such as: "I already told you that four times." She disconnected abruptly when I wanted to ask her a question. Maybe it would be good to remember that the Surgery is usually being phoned by people who suffer from pain and other health problems. Therefore, expecting patience and some empathy from the operator is not an exaggeration. There is a note near the reception that any impolite behaviours from patients will not be tolerated. That is reasonable, but this rule seems to not work in the opposite direction. I think next time, I will notify the CQC, and they will deal with the problem. It is a problem because the receptionist or an operator is the first person patients contact. Their behaviour may alleviate problems (if it is correct) or can cause unnecessary stress and its further health consequences

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback, which we are always grateful to receive. We are sorry that the service provided by the Practice was not to the standard we would usually expect for our patients. Our reception team have gone through a period of significant challenge recently with high levels of sickness and a number of new starters. We are working with our team to support them at this challenging time of low resource and high demand, which is even more challenged by regular poor patient behaviour of verbal aggression directed towards them. The receptionist role is very diverse and good customer service is very much part of our expectations for the role and we are sorry that on this occasion you did not experience this when telephoning the Practice.

• booking an appointment

  1

  Submitted by Anonymous 17th November 2023

  Tried to book an appointment for an issue that i have had for a couple of months but now really needs to be dealt with. An instant message to say due to illness the form has been disabled. I do not understand why we still need this process, the reason i have put off booking an appointment is that it is almost impossible to get one. This is not acceptable not everyone is able to go into Norwich to the walk in and it does not warrant a hospital visit. It seems like the doctors are constantly trying to push people to go to hospital where they are also short staffed and dealing with alot more than the local doctors.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback and we are sorry to learn that you were unable to contact us via our on-line system. Our forms are usually open from 7am to approximately 9.30am on each working day, but are then closed when we have reached capacity. At this time, patients are directed to contact the Practice by telephone in order that we can best manage care provision and risk by speaking with a patient directly. This is the safest way for us to manage care as patients needs can vary from life threatening to minor, with numerous conditions very ably manageable at home or via a community pharmacist. Our aim is to provide the very best care and access we can with the resources that we have available. We would not encourage patients to attend A&E or call 999 unless there is a life threatening emergency, but primary care is not designed to deliver emergency care and many conditions can wait without any harm to a patient. While we understand this may be frustrating and not always meet patient expectations, all health requests are reviewed by a clinician in order to prioritise our care delivery to the patients that request our help.

• Online system impenetrable

  1

  Submitted by Paul Rogan 10th November 2023

  I’ve today been attempting to cancel and immunisation appointment as my son is unwell. On hold for 20 mins after which the call connected and phone handset seemingly put down - disconnecting me. Website/ online system is frustratingly impenetrable. I worry for Attleborough’s large aging and elderly community’s ability to access services

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  We are sorry to learn of the difficulty you have had when trying to contact the Practice by telephone. We very much appreciate your efforts in order that this appointment was not wasted and could be offered to another patient. Our forms are usually open from 7am - 9.30am each morning. Our telephone system is due to be upgraded very soon as our current system is no longer able to manage the demand load placed on it. Our new system will also provide better functionality for our patients, who will be able to request a call back from the Practice as an alternative to waiting on hold. We are also actively promoting the use of the NHS app, where patients can order repeat medications, cancel appointments and see details regarding their medical record, etc. With more people managing and reviewing their care through our on-line platform or the NHS app, our staff can concentrate on providing telephone access and help to those who are not comfortable using technology to manage their care.

• Change in direct delivery prescriptions

  1

  Submitted by Anonymous 9th November 2023

  Change in direct delivery of repeat prescriptions from LloydsDirect is being handled badly as patients only became aware when it came time to peat a prescription. Advice being given as to how to deal with change is unclear leading to patients not knowing exactly what to do. Some patients do not have online access or want ton use an app.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback regarding our change in arrangements to stop receiving repeat prescription requests through individual email arrangements and a move for this to be managed through the NHS app. There is a national push to support the use of the NHS app as this will enable patients to manage their whole health record through one system, including ordering repeat medications. The Practice has always accepted receiving repeat order slips that can be posted to the Practice or brought in by hand and this is not changing for patients who do not have on-line access. We have worked hard over the past few months with our awareness campaign relating to this change and have messaged all of our patients, where we have a mobile number in place. We have also used Facebook and posters in the Practice to highlight this change and provided training videos and links that take patients through step by step of both installing the NHS app on phones and other electronic devices and how to order medication through this system. If you search us up on Facebook or go to www.Gov.uk you will be able to find more information about the NHS app and the benefits and functionality that is available through this platform. We hope that this further information is helpful.

• Difficulties getting a face to face appontmen

  1

  Submitted by Anonymous 6th November 2023

  I have had symptoms for 3 months and have had telephone appointments about this. Each time I have asked for a face to face appointment I’ve been given a further telephone call. I have been told that reception aren’t allowed to book doctor appointments face to face, only they can do that. I feel I am going round in circles, all I want is a face to face review as my symptoms require it. I have spoken with other surgeries who don’t have this policy. It is dangerous, can cause delays and in my line of work I am very concerned about the implications this could have.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback and we are sorry to read that you have had a prolonged period of ill health. All requests whether received via the telephone or via our on-line forms are reviewed by a clinician who determines the contact arrangements with a patient and will book a face to face appointment where they feel that this is required in order to best manage care and treatment. Clinicians will have full access to a patients previous history, clinical consultations, diagnostics and earlier treatments, which will be taken into consideration when deciding on next steps for health management. Unfortunately we are unable to comment on any individual care arrangements via this Healthwatch Feedback page.