Attleborough Surgeries

Feedback

• Difficulties getting a face to face appontmen

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  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.

• No support for problems

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  Submitted by Anonymous 5th November 2023

  Trying to set up repeat delivered prescriptions for my Mum which she already has from Lloyds and it works fine but apparently they are trying to cut out the middle man. Was told to get a copy of repeat prescription from Stn Rd Surgery and take to Queens Rd Surgery which I did and Stn Rd pharmacist there was totally mystified. Told to take Mum in which I can't do. Told to set up manually on surgery site all her details, meds etc which I did. Now can't get on to the site as it doesn't recognise her date of birth . So where do I go from here? I can't read the message that they have sent me. Went into the Queens Rd Surgery, tried to talk to the receptionist about the problem and the surgery manager tried to explain what to do. So confusing and couldn't hear a thing of what she was telling me with the music blasting out. Even the receptionist admitted that she could make no sense of what I was supposed to do. Mum can't have the app as she is 86 doesn't do tech. I was told I could just bring the prescriptions in which isn't possible either as we are away a lot. all I want is to carry on with Mum's prescriptions being delivered on a regular basis. I've put two stars for cleanliness as the screen on the receptionists desk was filthy . Pharmacist was lovely as usual and staff did their best Help!!

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback and we are sorry to learn of the problems you have experienced when managing the repeat ordering arrangements for your mum. The Practice has moved away from accepting individual emails for repeat ordering and in line with the NHS digital strategy, are promoting and supporting patients to use the NHS app. We have spent a number of months promoting this and providing educational resources to patients to help in this transition, before going live with the change. We understand that this may not suit everyone and we continue to be very happy to receive paper scripts either brought to the Practice by hand, or posted to us. Additionally, repeat ordering can also be easily managed for your mum through our website at www.attleboroughsurgeries.com using the Prescription tile on the front page. This is as quick and easy as the email system, but ensures that all requests are directly linked to the patients clinical record, reducing errors and increasing the efficiency in which the Practice is able to manage the many 1000's of repeat prescription requests we receive and are authorised by a GP each month.

• Unable to access messages.

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  Submitted by James Button 2nd October 2023

  I had a missed call stating that I had a message for me at reception. I phoned to told the surgery was closed. I phoned back the number I was called on to be told this number does not take incoming calls. I Tried accessing the message online to read: this capacity is full.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback and we are sorry to read of the frustration you have had when trying to contact the Surgery. The Surgery phones are only open to patients during core hours of 8.30am-6pm Monday - Friday and unfortunately we have no facility to take calls outside of these times. When our capacity is full for the day and we have reached our safe limit, we do also need to disable our on-line forms and these are always closed when the Practice is closed. We did for some time keep a number of our forms open to allow for general patient enquiries and contact, but many patients misused these forms to make clinic requests or to notify us of urgent problems and this can be unsafe, which led to us making the decision to switch most of our forms off after our capacity is full. We apologise for the frustration this can cause, but our forms are open each morning 6.30am - 9.30am and phone lines are open 9.5 hours on each working day.

• Incorrect information regarding COVID issues

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  Submitted by Denise Warboys 24th September 2023

  I called the surgery on Friday 22nd September to ask for advice as my partner aged 78 had developed breathing difficulties after contracting Covid on holiday. (I do have his permission to act on his behalf) After being on hold (I was 7 in the queue) I was immediately cut off when I got to number 1, after redialling and waiting again (number 8 in the queue) I was greeted by a very abrupt and rude receptionist. I explained the problem and was told quite rudely that Attleborough Surgery no longer deals with anything COVID related and I need to call 119. 119 options • For covid 19 and flu vaccination booking service (press 1) • For NHS Covid Pass Service (press 2) • To report an issue with covid vaccination record (press 3) • Test and Trace service (press 4) There is no option for help and advice so the information given was totally inaccurate and unhelpful. After calling back again and being on hold for over half an hour (number 8 in the queue) I was told again, quite rudely, by the same receptionist “I HAVE ALREADY TOLD YOU TO RING 119”. When I explained that I had and there was no option for help and advice she then told me to call the Norfolk and Norwich hospital because apparently Attleborough Surgery doesn’t handle anything COVID related anymore!!!!!!!! I called the hospital and asked for the CMDU (I had to google this as this information wasn’t given to me) and I spoke to a very friendly and helpful telephonist who explained that this department has now been closed s of August 31st and all Covid related care has been handed back to the GP’s and community services. She was also very concerned that I had been given the wrong information and after taking note of which surgery had given out the incorrect information, she was going to inform her superiors and the matter would be “looked into and dealt with!” She assured me that the closure of this department had been circulated to all GP Surgeries in the county. I enclose a copy of the post I put on the Attleborough Community Facebook page and I am also going to send a copy of all this to my local councillor for his attention and comments. You will not be surprised to know that the feedback from my post was that the service you are providing post Covid is nothing more than shocking. It is disturbing to say the least that when someone is genuinely concerned about the health of a 78-year-old patient with breathing difficulties was told to make OTHER phone calls when all I was requiring was a bit of reassurance and advice as my partners blood oxygen levels were down to 94% (Usually 99%) and what should I do if they drop any lower. This incident was on Friday 22nd September, originally 11.18 where I got cut off as soon as I reached number 1, then at 11.30, then at 12.25. Your receptionist was extremely abrupt and rude in my opinion, also giving out incorrect information. If this is the case and Attleborough Surgery are now not offering any COVID related treatment or advice then surely this should be made clearer on the website and also on the recorded message given at the start of the call should tell people this to save unnecessary holding on. My question to you is WHERE DO YOU GET HELP??????? Clearly not by calling 119 or the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. With winter approaching and a new variant of COVID circulating maybe you could advise patients where the help is available, I am sure that the Walk in Centre or A and E would not be able to cope with more patients attending or by calling 111 or 999 with an enquiry which could have been dealt with by a member of staff at your surgery. I would appreciate this matter being looked into urgently, if there is not a satisfactory outcome to this complaint, I shall be taking it to the Ombudsman as suggested on your website.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for sharing your feedback and concerns regarding the information given to you by a member of our Practice team regarding covid follow up care. While I note your concerns, the Healthwatch - Right to Respond platform is not an appropriate route to raise formal complaints, which we are happy to look into. If you would like to progress this matter, please contact the Practice directly, providing your details, in order that we can speak to you more fully about your encounter with us and can review the events that occurred. As general feedback from the Practice, we are sorry to read that you were misinformed and not appropriately directed to the help and advice that your needed and also that you found the attitude of our staff member abrupt. For your information, there are hundreds of care pathways and referral routes and time limited programmes of care that are implemented in the local health system. These all provide great value to our patients but unfortunately the level of information and speed of change regarding some areas of service provision can be difficult for our whole team to always be up to date with. Thank you however for your feedback.

• Always have to wait up a long time

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  Submitted by Mark Benson 18th September 2023

  Always have to wait up a long time, sometime almost an hour, just to get the phone to be answered!!!

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback and we are sorry for the length of time that you have had to wait in our queue to speak to a member of our reception team. Our call demand is significant and we have tried to improve this by rostering additional staff at key times of the day. Additionally we are investing in a new telephone system that can more robustly manage demand, as we are aware that a number of our callers get dropped from the line when call numbers become too high. There will also be options to request a call back, which will improve the experience of our patients as this is not currently available with our existing telephone supplier.

• Reception response to MRI scan report query

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  Submitted by Anonymous 15th September 2023

  I had finally had an MRI scan at Healthshare. Two days later, I called Attleborough surgery to find out whether they had the results or what the process would be to access the scan results. I waited on the phone (You are 12th in the call queue) for 35 minutes. The receptionist told me "The surgery will be in touch when they've seen the results if anything needs to be done" How long might that be? "We don't know." Could it be this week?7 days? Two weeks? Months? "I don't know but if something needs to be done someone will be in touch". I'm calling because I'm in pain and wanted to know if I should be doing something or not doing something. Can I get a chiropractic appointment or is that potentially damaging? "As I said if there's anything that needs to be done we'll be in touch" What if it's decided nothing can be done? "Then we won't be in touch." So I could wait for weeks or even months thinking that you haven't seen the scan results when actually you have seen them but haven't told me? "We don't have enough staff to call people to tell them it's OK" UNBELIEVABLE. I went online...and this time fought my way through to, yet again, registering for online responses (which I had done ages ago but which seems to have been obliterated from your system's memory) . With my new registration I finally find a place to request the results and , on the left hand side of the page, is a long column explaining how it is important to discuss results in case there is advice to be given even if it is not a serious issue. IT SAYS: We are trying to improve the ways you can receive your test results. We hope to have some results available for you online/using this website. Please note, we request that you do not assume that a result is normal if we do not contact you. The surgery will contact you if there is a significant problem with your results, but please contact us for all results as the GP may have made some suggestions or advice based on your results even if there is not a significant problem. My thought is: If the surgery can't afford staff, wouldn't it be advisable for them to invest in a bit of training? Maybe you could tell the staff to read the website and pass on the CORRECT advice. Maybe you could even teach the receptionists a bit of communications skill so that they know how to be empathetic with anxious patients in pain and offer them confident helpful and , most importantly, CORRECT guidance?

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback. I am sorry that you were left frustrated regarding the delay in reporting of your MRI scan. Unfortunately the Norfolk and Norwich have a significant backlog of work due to overwhelming demand on their services. They are processing these as quickly as they are able, but the wait times for reporting is unfortunately not something that the Surgery has influence over. The Practice does arrange for many hundreds of tests per week and it is not unusual that for some tests you may be informed that you will only hear from us if there is a concern with your results and if further action is needed. We are however always happy to respond to patients who wish to follow their results up. An MRI result is one that the referrer would respond to the patient on once the report has been received. Our reception team are well trained and experienced in supporting signposting for patients, but would not offer a clinical view regarding care, including chiropractic treatment. We are aware of issues with our telephone system, which is no longer able to cope with our call demand and are awaiting the final stage approval to move over to a cloud based system, which will provide a more robust system for our needs and a better experience for our patients, including a call back function.

• Terrible service

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  Submitted by Sian Campbell 25th August 2023

  It is impossible to get an appointment.the with Attleborough surgeries these days and there are never any doctors or nurses available. You have to explain your private issues tk a non medically qualified receptionist before they decide if you are allowed to see a doctor. If you try to call its over an hours waiting on hold to get through. They cut you off or just don't answer the calls. Emails get stopped early in the morning because they say they are too busy. You can't call or email it's ridiculous and people are being misdiagnosed or failing to be taken seriously by the surgery because the receptionist gets to deceide if you are ill or not. I've waited weeks for test results only to find out they already had them but don't bother to call the patient u less they are told to. What's the point in having tests if they don't tell you the results? Cate quality commission stepped in but I still just as bad if not worse than ever. Absolutely terrible service and it scares me how many sick people are being left or failed because the staff do not do what they are supposed to be doing. This surgery needs shutting down and we desperately need a new surgery with new staff. No wonder the hospital is having to cope with so much if the local GPS refuse to see patients.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback and we are sorry to read your comments regarding our service. All of our clinical staff, including GPs provide face to face, telephone and on-line care to our patients each working day. All of our staff are trained and work to the highest level of confidentiality and by providing details to our reception team, they are better able to direct the health problem to the most appropriate person. Our reception team do not decide who is able to see a member of our clinical team and work incredibly hard to support our patients access timely care with the right person. The surgery provides extensive on the day provision through our same day team, which includes a GP, Advanced Care Practitioners, visiting paramedic and Nurse Practitioners. However, it is important that when we are at capacity, that a member of our team can speak to the patient in order that we can safely manage access to care and treatment and it is at this time that our on-line forms are suspended. This is a common approach taken across Primary Care. With over 18,600 patients, the Practice carries out many diagnostic tests each week and usually advises patients that they will only hear from us if there is something abnormal that needs to be discussed; we are sorry if this was not discussed with you. Regarding our phone system, we are aware that it is no longer fit for purpose and are moving to a cloud based system in the next few months, which we hope will improve the experience for our patients. Thank you for your feedback, which is always appreciated.

• They do not care about patients

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  Submitted by Anonymous 22nd August 2023

  I am not satisfied with service at all. Beginning with appointment booking and with doctors. My mum was prescribed medication without any blood test and after we refused to give new medication and demanded to do blood test GP called and sad no use those meds. No sorry nothing even I told that she doesn’t need it. GP refuse to see her face to fade, sending wrong referral to specialist and a lot of other mistakes.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  We have received your feedback and would very much like the opportunity to investigate the issues of concern that you have raised regarding your mother's care. If you would like to contact the Practice directly to provide further details, we would be pleased to hear from you.

• Cut off

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  Submitted by Mandy Rostron 17th August 2023

  When trying to get through to the surgery on behalf of my mother I was cut off after a few words. This has happened before. I was polite so it wasn't because I was rude.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  We are very sorry to hear of your experience when contacting us by telephone. This sounds like a technical issue, rather than a human issue. We are in the process of upgrading our phones to a cloud based system which should be more robust in managing the call volume we are now receiving and provide much better options for patients when they contact us. I apologise for the experience that you have had and we hope that the new system will be in place by the end of the Autumn 2023.

• another in a litany f non-service

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  Submitted by tim Thornby 31st July 2023

  I experienced the continuing decline of the NHS (as provided by this joke surgery) today. Just over a month ago I pulled/damaged some tendons in my shoulder. I self-medicated - unsuccessfully - for two weeks (knowing that's the least time I'd have to wait for an appointment) then requested a doctor's appointment. Today - over two weeks after making the request - I saw a physiotherapist who advised a steroid injection. ....which she couldn't administer (!). I was told to seek an appointment with a GP which I did (as they hut the website after 0830 I delivered a letter, for urgency). my request for said injection was declined as the GP's no longer offer the injections! I was - can you believe it - then advised to go private! I declined and have been told to ask the GP when I have a telephone consultation (on an unrelated matter) on 10th August (11 days further on). He then should refer me (another wait) for a jab. Disgusting. When I raised the issue of the practice's patient-GP ratio (far from the highest in Norfolk) and their low (62%) patient satisfaction rating I was tol that - demonstrating egregious complacency - they'd had TWO forms in this week complementing their services! How remarkable! Had the Reception Manager reflected on his boast (using the numbers HE provided) he might have realised that another 18998 patients registered there we (for that week) either ambivalent or unhappy with the appallng 'care' (joke!) that this surgery provides. I had a face to face meeting with the practice manager over a year ago about the appalling state of service this surgery provides(it is doubtless she who will respond on this forum, if I'm lucky). here has been no evidence of improvement whatsoever. I shall be submitting a formal complaint to CQC for their investigation.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback which we were disappointed to read. Our Practice has worked hard to recruit a range of additional staff to work alongside the more traditional primary care team. This includes First Contact Physiotherapists, Social Prescribers, Clinical Pharmacists and Mental Health Practitioners. These staff have added huge value to the services we offer and improved access for many of our patients. Your referral directly to our Physiotherapist, who specialises in musculoskeletal injury, would appear appropriate rather than having a wait to speak to a GP to later be referred to them. They have expertise that our GPs do not have and assessed that intervention via steroid injection may be beneficial to you. Many Practices do not provide this service locally and patients would have been referred for many years to hospital and placed on a waiting list for treatment. As a Practice we have had to make the decision to mostly cease this service, in order that we can better target our resources in supporting the diverse needs of our practice population. We are sorry that the Physiotherapist seemed unaware of this change and we will ensure that they are reminded of this. The hospital operates high thresholds for referral for steroid injection and we hope you will be able to discuss this further during your appointment on 10th August.