Covid was a blessing for the workers at Orchard Surgery. The practice closed down within weeks, and their website was filled with directions to contact anybody but them - and still is. Isn’t it time that we tried to return to normal service?
Orchard don’t think so. Currently there are eight doctors, offering ’consultations’…by phone. The personal approach - so important a feature of medical treatment, and diagnosis - is immediately absent. Who wants to discuss difficult and/or embarrassing medical conditions with a voice on the phone? (This, by the way, makes life even more difficult for people with hearing impairment: RNID says, “In the UK there are 12 million adults with hearing loss greater than 25 dBHL. This is equivalent to one in five adults.”)
But fear not! Face-to-face with a doctor is possible….on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, between 07.30, and 08.00. Yes! Ninety minutes every week to do the job as it should be done! Well done, Orchard! Assuming six doctors working six hours each, five days a week, we may calculate that less than 1% of the time available to the surgery is spent in actually seeing those nasty disease-ridden things called patients.
So - in a nutshell - when I or my wife needed treatment over the last two and a half years - it was not a doctor. who spoke to us, but an HCA (they are allowed to see patients: they’re not doctors, so not as worthy); and the advice was either to ring 111 - less use than the cat; or to go to A&E for a couple of days away from it all.
The Nurse Practitioners at Orchard Surgery are excellent, very knowledgable and able to refer to hospital. The surgery could do with more nurse practitioners
Reply from Orchard Surgery
Thank you for your feedback. We have just employed a male Nurse Practitioner to join the team.
Used to be gr8 before lockdown
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Submitted by Anonymous12th May 2022
A once great surgery has gone down so fast since b4 covid. Now its almost impossible to get appt.
It seems from Monday next appointments are "online only" What about those without internet access or those lacking internet skills? How do we contact the surgery if we have problems with prescriptions etc? Where do we find this information? It is virtually impossible to contact them by telephone now. Their website says they have a team of 10 receptionists! Really? Someone should take a long serious look at the running of this surgery. It used to be outstanding.
It is impossible to get an appointment to see a GP. For Months now it has been running an emergency Appointment only service. This means anything not an emergency is left and not checked. You are questioned many times if it is an emergency if you really need an appointment and actually manage to get through. It can't continue like this, many things will be missed or get really bad until they are looked at. Never used to have issues just the last year or so.
emailed my health issue via website and received a reply (at 4pm) stating that i would be called today.
I have had my mobile next to me ever since and no callback-i know they are very busy and i've been with them for over 30 years and have no previous complaints, but I am currently suffering with depression and it is not helpful when waiting for a call that does not come, increasing anxiety etc
I sustained a burn on my face. A pharmacist in town was too busy to examine my condition, and the staff recommended some products, none of which were in stock. Another pharmacy was closed because it was Sunday. On Monday, as soon as the surgery was open, I filled in the online form (you can do so only during the surgery's opening hours), requesting an appointment with the doctor. I provided details of my condition and photos of the affected area. By 11:00, the surgery e-mailed me, saying:
"We have added the photos to your records. The surgery is at capacity today. If you need to be seen today you can attend the Walk-in Centre in Norwich or call 111 or speak with your local pharmacist for advice."
I was shocked by the surgery's bureaucratic response. In the form, I had explained that I had no luck with local pharmacists. In my experience, other surgeries in Breckland always got back to me with diagnosis, treatment instructions and prescription, if necessary, even if I could not see or talk to the doctor. The surgery may argue I did not fill in the form the way they wanted, but I specifically said that I would welcome an e-mail communication if I could not see the doctor.
The surgery does not seem to understand that every patient contacts them because he/she is in pain and in need for professional advice and treatment. With the information I provided, the surgery could have assigned a clinician, instead of telling me to go away and seek help somewhere else.
I was deeply disappointed to learn that I no longer have an NHS service I can rely on.
I have been using Orchard Surgery for many years, no matter what world situations there are all the staff are fantastic always helpful and with the current corona viruse situation they have to adapt to many many situations but always there on the telephone
Thank you
It is difficult to contact the surgery as the phones are very busy. My father is currently being seen on a regular basis by the surgery and the hospital for a skin problem. I am finding it difficult to get follow up appointments in general and also with the same doctor, we keep seeing different ones and have to keep going over the history of the problem. Part of the problem with being unable to book appointments is that the surgery has lots of part time GP's, when I'm trying to make a follow up appointment with the GP my father last saw there is a few weeks to wait. The surgery manage my fathers medication, but sometimes the wait for a repeat prescription can be a few days, so as long as we bear this in mind when we re order it is not a problem.
The surgery has lots of part time GP's which can mean that the wait to see one can be quite long, particularly if you want to see the same GP for a follow up appointment.The waiting times are also impacted by the number of appointments that are wasted by people who do not attend. I have found recently that if you need to be seen on the day you tend to be booked in with a Nurse Practitioner, generally they can help you but there have been times when I have felt that an appointment with a GP would have been more suitable for me. I find that when I speak to the surgery some of the receptionists are more considerate than others and have on one or two occasions found that they can be a bit dismissive of my concerns.The phones are very busy in the mornings and on one occasion when I called I waited nearly 45 minutes to be spoken to. Overall, the surgery is good though just very busy and it would benefit from having some full time GP's.