Attleborough Surgeries

Feedback

• One Excuse After Another ....

  1

  Submitted by Anonymous 13th May 2023

  Attleborough Surgery is apparently overwhelmed with requests to see a GP. May I therefore make a suggestion! Instead of allowing your books to remain open for new patient registrations - close them. Then perhaps existing patients might just be in with a chance of securing a ''face-to-face'' appointment. Additonally, new GP's might be encouraged to stay instead of being overwhelmed by the chaos which prevails and moving to new pastures!

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback and we are sorry to read of your frustration regarding accessing a face to face appointment at the Surgery. Please be aware however, that all health care requests are reviewed by a clinician and a face to face appointment will be offered where it is decided that this is the most appropriate clinical outcome for the patient. With the advancement of telemedicine, there are many health issues that can be appropriately and effectively assessed and treated through telephone and on-line consultations, enabling more patients each day to be seen across our breadth of clinical staff. We have been working closely with our Commissioners for an extensive period of time regarding the expansion of our facilities and raising awareness of the pressure on our services and the impact on access for our patients. However, it is not a decision within the Practices remit to simply choose to close our list to new registrations and much of our increase in demand is generated by existing and not new patients who are accessing our services more. Education around self care and management for minor illness conditions will help ensure that we can safeguard our NHS services for those who really need it and we can continue to provide high quality care to our existing and expanding population.

• Lack of duty of care.

  1

  Submitted by Anonymous 27th April 2023

  I have had a very difficult time with the practice recently when seeking help with mental health problems. Initially my experience was ok, GP, mental health nurse and referral for therapy. However, more recently my experience has gone downhill, for several reasons. Most recently and most significant I struggled for several days to get an appointment or phone call from any of the health care professionals at the practice to discuss urgent problems with my medication. I was offered appointments 3 weeks in advance for a problem that should have been dealt with ASAP. I feel due to the nature of my problem being mental health I was not taken seriously and discriminated against and my problems dismissed due to having a history of misusing/overdosing on medication and self harm. The receptionists have all be lovely and I don’t know the name of the last one I spoke to but she was amazing.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback relating to your concerns when trying to access support from the Practice. I am sorry that you feel we have not met your needs in a timely way and would be happy to look into this in more detail if you would like to contact the Practice directly. I would also like to reassure you that our staff are here to help all patients, regardless of whether their issues relate to mental or physical health needs. Thank you for your positive comments relating to our reception team, which is always lovely to hear.

• Brilliant GPs

  5

  Submitted by Amber 11th April 2023

  Took my son across today as he has been unwell and both Dr Chambers and Dr Cole were so brilliant with him, sharing their knowledge of dinosaurs really helped with his examination and diagnosis. They are always so good, always call when they say they will..really cannot fault them

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Attleborough Surgeries would like to thank you for providing such glowing feedback about your recent experience. We have many fantastic staff working for the Practice, for which we are very proud and we will ensure your lovely compliment is passed on to Dr Chambers and Dr Cole.

• Getting an appointment is so difficult

  1

  Submitted by Anonymous 4th April 2023

  Have been trying to get to the bottom of a medical problem for over a month and a half now, no one is taking it seriously, I'm losing work over the matter, being fobbed off with phone call appointments when they already know whats going on, I'm feeling depressed about the whole situation and getting no where, and even using the online form is ridiculous because just says fully booked all I want is to see a doctor face to face

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback regarding the concerns you have relating to accessing our services. We continue to provide a significant amount of face to face as well as telephone appointments and have recently increased our face to face capacity in response to patient feedback. All health issues are triaged by our clinical team to determine whether a health problem can be managed via a telephone or face to face appointment and our team will review any relevant past history prior to making this decision. We are sorry to read your frustrations and we would be happy to investigate your concerns if you would like to contact the Practice directly, either through our website or via r.reception@nhs.net providing further details.

• Paying a compliment to Pauline

  5

  Submitted by A Roper 1st April 2023

  I won’t go into too much detail but I was so incredibly anxious and Pauline was just so fantastic about it all. She did really put me at ease, and was just so quick, I was in and out in no time. I just wanted to apologise and thank her again!! It was one of the best appointments I have had at Attleborough surgeries!

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for this fantastic compliment, which we have passed onto Pauline and our Nurse Manager. We always really appreciate receiving positive feedback from our patients, which is greatly valued by the member of staff and the Practice. Thank you!

• Failed service

  1

  Submitted by Dean H 7th March 2023

  I had a clinician call, I couldn’t answer due to work commitments, was advised I would be put on the list for the next week and got no call, a simple email or answer to my question would have be surfice can I collect a swap and complete and bring back to get checked, as had two lots of cream and antibiotics and I still have the infection

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for leaving your feedback. Unfortunately without patient details we are unable to investigate the events that you have detailed in order to respond to the concerns that you have raised. If you would like us to review this further, please contact us via our on-line forms by visiting www.attleboroughsurgeries.com and mark for the attention of the Practice Manager,

• Social Prescriber - Donna

  4

  Submitted by Anonymous 14th February 2023

  I had cancelled my face-to-face appointment at short notice due to childcare issues but Donna called me anyway. When I explained that my father had just arrived to take my son out for the day and asked if she could call me back in 2 min, she did and we had a very useful telephone appointment. I would have preferred to see her in person but getting a call back was better than not having an appointment at all. She told me about local Slimming World classes and was sympathetic to my poor experience with online forms. She gave me a telephone number to call for Slimming World and referred me to Active Norfolk. Thanks Donna.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your lovely feedback regarding Donna. We feel extremely lucky to have three Social Prescribers working in our Practice, who have now become firmly embedded as part of our Practice Team. We are pleased to hear of the help you received and the flexibility shown by Donna in accommodating your personal circumstances regarding the call time.

• Thank you Dr Fry

  5

  Submitted by Hannah 10th February 2023

  Our 9day old baby was struggling to keep down his milk. Dr Fry saw him last thing on a Friday evening and ensured that we were able to change his formula and recognised that he could potentially be lactose intolerant. We ended up in hospital that weekend and he had been put on a great formula to help him. Dr Fry then called us early the Monday morning as a follow up. Thank you for your time, patience and for finding the best solution for our son. You were able to fit us in last minute and made sure we could access the formula we needed for the weekend.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your lovely feedback. We will ensure that Dr Fry receives your thanks and comments and we are glad to read that your baby is doing well after the care they received at the Practice and the hospital, followed by a change in formula milk.

• Changing Surgery

  1

  Submitted by Anonymous 26th January 2023

  After suffering with another chest infection, I spent a couple of days trying to get seen as it was concerning how I hadn’t got better. Originally told they would call me Wednesday, then they changed it to Thursday. In the end I managed to get a call back after telling them I felt worse. She told me it was viral and I would effectively ‘get over it’ and left it at that. Last night I called 111 who called me back and got me in to be seen at a local out of hours surgery at 2am. He’s told me I have issue with one of my lungs and really I should have been seen and not fobbed off. Now I’ve got another dose of antibiotics to hopefully help me. Attleborough surgery’s never want to know. I’m not normally one to go to a doctor for no reason.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback. We are sorry to read of the concerns that you have detailed but unfortunately we are unable to comment without understanding full details of your health issues and the clinical review that took place. I note that you have implied in your narrative that you plan to change surgeries and while we are disappointed that you feel the need to do so, will always respect patient choice regarding where they wish to be a registered patient.

• Absolutely ridiculous waiting times

  1

  Submitted by mrs Svetlana HANNAH 17th January 2023

  Was specifically requested not to contact in advance. Contacted with 3 days to spare, the appointment offered was for 10 days late. On the day of telephone appointment, phone rang, shouting hello hello, couldn't hear the nurse. She than hangs up. Contacted the surgery, the next available appointment is now in another 16 days! The whole thing will now take me over a month from when the original HRT review was supposed to have taken place, and I will have no medication at all! This is an atrocious behaviour and attitude. There's no one to complain to, and there isn't a telephone contact apart from the one you wait in the queue for 45 mins in.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your recent review and for highlighting the issues you have had in making a timely appointment for HRT review. We are sorry for the wait you have experienced. Our clinicians that provide HRT reviews have undertaken a higher level of specialist training in order to appropriately support our patients and unfortunately this can sometime result in pressure on our capacity. We are actively working to improve our service provision by developing another member of our clinical team in this specific area of womens health and we hope that this will positively impact on the care we are able to provide in the future. We are also working with our website provider in order to make it easier for patients who wish to provide us with feedback - good and bad, to contact us directly. Thank you for your feedback which is appreciated.