Attleborough Surgeries

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• Another day of not getting hold of anyone

  1

  Submitted by Anonymous 22nd November 2022

  This surgery is not fit for purpose, Attleborough is let down by its lack of capacity, my life is being made a misery by sending messages which I cannot reply too, or speak to anyone for help

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback. Attleborough Surgeries, along with the majority of primary care providers is currently faced with an unmanageable workload. Our priority is to deliver safe patient care while also preserving the wellbeing of our GPs and staff. We continue to work hard to recruit a robust and wide breadth of clinical staff and are doing this in the context of 1,425 less whole time equivalent GPs nationally now compared to 2015 and therefore are competing with many other Practices in relation to GP recruitment. We feel extremely lucky to employ the experienced, committed and caring team that we have and are sorry that at times we are unable to respond in a way that always meets patient expectation. Our on-line forms are open every morning and our phone lines remain open 08.30 - 18.00 each day, although at times we may also direct patient to alternative support via pharmacists in local chemists, 111 or the walk in centre.

• Extremely frustrating

  2

  Submitted by Susan Strutt 16th November 2022

  I appreciate the need to triage and manage excess calls on your services, but I have tried to a) register for systmonline, and b) make an appointment to see someone about the palpitations and increased breathlessness I have been feeling since having covid a month ago. It is obviously not that urgent otherwise I would have been to A & E by now, or worse. However, I found the website to be leading me in circles. There is no form when pressing 'get help for any medical condition', and the NHS app is no better because it just tells you to do what it says on the surgery website. Frustrating is not the word, it's excruciatingly annoying and cross-making. I had my booster jab today and was urged by the nurse there to follow up my heart palpitations as I have angina. I had not bothered because of the bad press the surgery is getting and not wanting to cause more pressure if there is such a huge demand on your services,. but there seems no way through. I have advocated using the website as the best way to get an appointment when people have complained as, in the past, it has worked for me, but something has changed, and not for the better.

  
  
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• Poor response and booking system

  2

  Submitted by Anonymous 14th November 2022

  Following my 14 year old having flu, having a continuing chesty cough with plenty of Phlegm I knew he had a chest infection, made this clear and my concern that it may develop further. It was a nightmare to try to book an appointment and got minimal notice to come along to an appointment with NP (not GP), who said his chest seemed clear. Gave him a sample pot to cough into to bring back 4 days later (after weekend). Dropped this off containing what he had coughed up and received a text the following Sunday confirming infection. 10 days later my son finally has antibiotics that he should have been given at the first appointment. Unacceptable length of time not to be treated! Too many hoops to jump through to receive basic care when ill.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  We are sorry to receive your poor review of our service. Our clinical team work hard to prioritise the needs of our patients based on the information provided and from the description of your experience, it reads that your son was offered an appointment in our Same Day Clinic, which would have been due to the symptoms that you detailed and the assessment that a quick response for a health review was appropriate. Our Nurse Practitioners are highly skilled and experienced, with most being able to assess, diagnose and prescribe. They work alongside our GPs who are always available for further review and 2nd opinion should this be required. It is extremely important that infections are appropriately diagnosed before issuing antibiotics, in line with national guidelines, due to the high resistance levels that have built up due to the historical over-prescribing of antibiotics. Many viral infections can be extremely challenging to our health, making us feel very unwell with similar symptoms to bacterial infections. However, while viral infections can be very unpleasant, they do not respond to antibiotics and can usually be treated with rest and over the counter medications such as paracetamol. I am pleased that an accurate diagnosis of infection was confirmed following your sons sample being analysed and a prescription issued for his treatment. I hope that he is now recovered.

• Using Facebook Instead of Practice Website

  1

  Submitted by R Bush 25th October 2022

  It has recently become evident that Attleborough Surgeries are relying on the use of Facebook to disseminate important health related information and news regarding vaccinations, medication orders and similar patient centric information. None of this is available on the practice website in either the news or information sections. For example, flu vaccination dates are being provided via Facebook and not on the practice website. I, and many others do not use Facebook and do not do so for valid privacy reasons. When I recently asked a receptionist why this information is not provided she was not able to provide any meaningful response. We are completely reliant on using the practice website for communications and this must be the primary interface between patients and the provision of important health related information and not relegated to the ‘too hard box’ because Facebook is easily used by practice staff. It is essential that important information is provided via the practice website and not exclusively via third party social media.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback. We welcome helpful suggestions from our patients and our increased use of Facebook to share important messages was based on feedback from our patients who requested this from us. While it is a quick medium to use to reach a larger audience, much thought goes into the messages placed on this platform. We are also aware that our posts get regularly shared on the Attleborough Community Board, which also helps to disseminate important information relevant to our patients at greater speed and reaching a wider audience than that achieved from patients simply proactively visiting our website. We also put posters up in our Practice for patients visiting our Surgeries to see. We are happy to take on board your suggestion to duplicate some of this information on our website, but we are aware that as our website is principally designed to support on-line access to our service resources, sometimes key Practice messages are not obviously seen. There is also often a delay with our website provider updating information, so it would not be suitable for all occasions, for example on our last flu day we used Facebook and SMS very successfully to provide an open invite to eligible patients to attend without an appointment, when we found we had available capacity due to a number of booked patients not attending. Thank you once again for taking the time to provide this suggestion which we will definitely take on board.

• Refused care for new born

  1

  Submitted by Anonymous 21st October 2022

  Went to this surgery in person who were perfectly able to book a Dr appointment for a 6 week check. Immediately asked for another follow up appointment for a skin condition for my baby and was told that the receptionist is now unable to book appointments (despite having just done so) and that the only way to book an appointment was for my baby to register themself on the online system and book an appointment at 6:30am on a Monday. Really disgusting level of care, especially where an appointment for a newborn is concerned. Zero point in receptionists being there is they can’t make appointments. Will take my child straight to A and E for any health concerns in future rather than use this third world service.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for feedback. We are sorry to receive your star rating for our services and are pleased to read of the good access that you received when booking your 6 week baby check appointment. There are many appointment types that patients can book directly including blood tests, annual long term disease reviews, 6 week baby checks, etc. to name but a few. However for health issues that require a response from a senior clinician or GP, we manage these through a triage system which ensures that patient need is prioritised appropriately, seen by the most appropriate clinician and that an appointment type is offered that best suits the health issue; this can be face to face, telephone, video consultation or on-line advice. Our receptionists are trained in helping our patients navigate the system of our on-line forms and will have informed you of the way in which a form for your baby could be completed so that our clinicians received all of the important information regarding your concerns. Our forms do open at 6.30am and are open for a number of hours, until our capacity is full for the day; we then direct patients to our phone lines for urgent health queries and other services and resources that can also be considered. Our receptionists fulfil a vital role in our Practice, both supporting our clinicians and our patients and are a greatly valued part of our team. The Practice will always consider the needs of babies and young children very seriously and we dedicate a large resource to our same day service. We would like to remind our patients that A&E is for patients with urgent and life threatening illness and there are many other services that can be accessed including NHS 111, Norwich Walk in Centre and local pharmacy services for minor ailments.

• 90year old father-in-law moved from list

  1

  Submitted by Anonymous 18th October 2022

  My father-in-law spent some time in the hospital and was then sent to a care home, whereby he spent many weeks with no review or care plan. My wife managed to get him out of the care home and back into his own home. Subsequently, my father-in-law was de-registered without knowledge of their actions and his records were sent to another GP. This means that his local surgery, Attleborough, now says he needs to be re-registered. This requires my busy wife to sort this mess out again. The level of 'service' from Attleborough surgeries is a disgrace, leaving my elderly in-law with no medical review or concern about what medicines he may need. This surgery should be ashamed - disgusting.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback and we are sorry to read your concern regarding your in-laws access to our Surgery and their medications. Unfortunately the system you have described has not been instigated by the Practice, but is a national system whereby when a patient moves and is registered by another Practice, which would have been the case for your in-laws, their records are recalled from the original Practice, sent to the new Practice and we are instructed to remove them from our list; this is because a patient can only be registered with one Practice in England and Wales, unless they have been registered as a temporary resident by their new Practice. The only means by which we would be able to retrieve all relevant health records back to the Practice in order to provide safe care to your in-laws is via the registration process, which then enables us to request, receive and see all of their records. We are sorry for the concern this has raised for your family, but hope this has explained why this has happened, which is through no fault of the Surgery.

• Impossible to Arrange an Appointment

  1

  Submitted by Anonymous 13th October 2022

  The online form for patients to try to arrange an appointment are not available. The phone number puts you in a queue that can last for hours (which for anyone unwell is not ideal). I gave up. There is no point trying to get help over the phone. Had to collect a repeat prescription last week and stood for over an hour in a long queue that stretch back out the door - again not ideal for anyone who is unwell. What can I do? I am not well and need a doctor's appointment - and it's impossible to get one. I know from reading other reviews that I am not alone, and that many are suffering worse illnesses than mine, but this lack of care is appalling.

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback and we are sorry to read of the frustrations you have experienced when trying to contact the Practice to request advice regarding your health. Our patient demand is extremely high and unfortunately this does often result in us needing to turn our on-line forms off in the morning in order to safely manage the demand already received for patients requiring clinical review and response. During this time we will signpost our patients to alternative resources and services for help and we continue to keep our phone lines open for patients who have an urgent on the day health issue. Unfortunately the frequent closure of the local chemists, the withdrawal of them managing any repeat ordering for their patients, which they implemented a few months ago and their frequent inability to issue medication prescribed by our doctors is resulting in us needing to manage a large volume of patient queries for our non-dispensed patients, impacting on our patients and our dedicated dispensing team.

• Website closed phone cut off at 12am after 35

  1

  Submitted by Anonymous 12th October 2022

  Contacted surgery by website its closed. Phoned 35 min wait next person to be answered phone disconnected surgery end. Its a joke. Contacted surgery 2 week ago re possible bleed in bowl told go to a and e no appointment offered. Told surgery can't help

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  We are sorry to read of the issues that you are having trying to contact the Practice. Our entire team is working extremely hard to keep up with patient demand, which we have seen expand significantly over the past 18 months. When our capacity is full we unfortunately need to switch our on-line forms off, in order that we can safely manage the demand that has been received that requires clinical review and a response. We do however have a large team of experienced clinicians, including a GP, providing urgent same day access throughout the day. However, there will be times after clinical review that the health matter requires more urgent and specialist assessment and treatment, that can only be provided through A&E services and patients will be advised of this. Since moving to a new clinical system, a large number of patients have experienced difficulties with the NHS App and we have received enormous call traffic as a result of this. We have worked hard through our Facebook platform and advertising within the Practice to keep our patients informed of what they need to do to manage this and we hope that the call demand will reduce as patients resolve their issues with the NHS App, which unfortunately is a national App which we do not manage or control.

• 25th in line on call

  1

  Submitted by Maria Dowgialo 11th October 2022

  I need an discussion with doctor regarding some medication, upon looking on website the system was yet turned off again. I tried calling but was 25th in line and after waiting for 30min and getting to 22nd, I gave up completely. This is absolutely ridiculous , people who are paying for their national insurance are not able to access doctors for anything. How long must this keep going until someone fully investigates?

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  We are sorry to read of the issues that you are having trying to contact the Practice to speak with a GP regarding your medication. Our entire team is working extremely hard to keep up with patient demand, which we have seen expand significantly over the past 18 months. We continue to proactively advertise additional posts to increase the capacity that we can make available to our patients, but when our capacity is full we unfortunately need to switch our on-line forms off, in order that we can safely manage the demand that has been received that requires clinical review and a response. Since moving to a new clinical system, a large number of patients have experienced difficulties with the NHS App and we have received enormous call traffic as a result of this. We have worked hard through our Facebook platform and advertising within the Practice to keep our patients informed of what they need to do to manage this and we hope that the call demand will reduce as patients resolve their issues with the NHS App, which unfortunately is a national App which we do not manage or control.

• Difficulty making appointment

  1

  Submitted by Anonymous 11th October 2022

  I believe that I may have an adult umbilical hernia. Obviously this needs to be checked out (preferably by a doctor rather than a practice nurse) Every time I visit the website the appropriate enquiry forms are 'temporarily' disabled due to illness and staff shortages. As I type this I am number 15 in the call queue! How on earth am I supposed to make an appointment?

• Reply from Attleborough Surgeries

  Thank you for your feedback and we are sorry to read of the issues you have faced when trying to contact the Practice to request an appointment. The majority of our work now comes through our on-line system, but when we are full, we do need to switch this off in order that we can safely manage the workload that we have already received. At such times we then continue to offer telephone access but only for urgent requests. Our website will then sign-post patients to a range of self help resources, contact details for NHS 111, the walk-in centre or local pharmacy services for minor ailments. Our forms open each morning at 6.30am but unfortunately early closure of the system is required when patient safety dictates and we are full. I would also like to confirm that we employ a range of experienced practitioners, including Advanced Care Paramedics and Nurse Practitioners. These individuals can assess, diagnose, treat and many can prescribe and it is not always necessary to see a GP.