School Lane Surgery

Feedback

• Excellent

  5

  Submitted by Collected by Healthwatch Norfolk engagement team 11th March 2024

  Good service as usual, very good. Excellent!

• Reply from School Lane Surgery

  We appreciate your positive feedback! Thank you for choosing our services. We will share your feedback with the team! Thank you for your feedback. Regards M. Rolph Business Manager

• Always amazing

  5

  Submitted by Collected by Healthwatch Norfolk engagement team 11th March 2024

  They're always amazing - absolutely perfect and very helpful. They usually fit me in for appointments.

• Reply from School Lane Surgery

  Thank you for your kind words! We're glad to hear about your positive experiences with us. We will share your feedback with the team! Thank you for your feedback. Regards M. Rolph Business Manager

• Today was good

  4

  Submitted by Collected by Healthwatch Norfolk engagement team 11th March 2024

  Today was good. It does seem like a waste of time when you see a trainee who takes all the information and then a full Dr. comes in and overrides the diagnosis. But, it was good overall.

• Reply from School Lane Surgery

  We're pleased to hear about your positive experience today. As a training practice we do host GP Registrars that are supervised by experienced GPs. This is to ensure that they have experience with seeing patients whilst ensuring patient safety is maintained. We also have a range of staff who are supervised by GP's, such as Physician Associates. Again, this allows experience with patients and ensures the safety of the patient and effective patient care. For more information on the full range of roles we have in the surgery, please visit our website and see the news item titled “The Power of Teamwork: Roles within School Lane Surgery”. Thank you for your feedback. Regards M. Rolph Business Manager

• Never have appointments

  1

  Submitted by Collected by Healthwatch Norfolk engagement team 11th March 2024

  They never have any appointments and you can't book in person. You call up, they're full and you can't get a GP. My partner called about his finger and still hasn't been called back 2 weeks later. For my son, I was told he needed medicine but I still haven't got the prescription.

• Reply from School Lane Surgery

  We apologise for the difficulty you've faced in accessing appointments and obtaining prescriptions. I can confirm that in: • December 2023, we had over 5,300 appointments • January 2024, we had over 6,250 appointments • February 2024, we had 6,695 appointments. This averages to over 318 appointments per day for February 2024 and we are increasing the number of appointments offered as much as we possibly can month on month. Whilst this is a lot of appointments, the surgery has over 17,300 patients registered. The demand for appointments is high and we acknowledge this. We have been actively recruiting for more GPs and clinical staff for over 6 months and we are pleased to advise that we have recruited a new GP who started in March, and we have another GP starting in April. If you would like to contact us directly via the Feedback form on the website, we will have a look into the specific issues raised. Your input is valuable to us. Regards M. Rolph Business Manager

• Brilliant nurse

  5

  Submitted by Collected by Healthwatch Norfolk engagement team 11th March 2024

  I saw the asthma nurse and she's brilliant.

• Reply from School Lane Surgery

  We're delighted to hear about your positive experience with our asthma nurse! Thank you for your kind words & we will share this with the team. Regards M. Rolph Business Manager

• Got an appointment easily

  3

  Submitted by Collected by Healthwatch Norfolk engagement team 11th March 2024

  I rang up and got an appointment easily today, however you should be able to ring and book any time of the day and in person. Should be like before when you could book for other days. The website is also very slow.

• Reply from School Lane Surgery

  We're glad you found it easy to book an appointment. Currently we are operating NHS England's suggested approach to booking appointments. This means that all requests for an appointment have to be triaged. At School Lane this is done in a dedicate GP led hub where all requests are triaged, the urgency is determined, and an appointment offered based on the details provided by the Patient. We are actively recruiting for more Drs, and one has recently joined the team with another joining next month. We also have an Advanced Care Practitioner who will be joining the team in May. So, we hope to be able to increase the appointments offered to our patients. Thank you for raising the website issue, we will contact the providers and highlight this with them to look into. Thank you for your feedback. Regards M. Rolph Business Manager

• Can't fault them

  4

  Submitted by Collected by Healthwatch Norfolk engagement team 11th March 2024

  Can't fault them. The GPs and receptionists are ok although there's sometimes confusion between them and the pharmacy.

• Reply from School Lane Surgery

  Thank you for your positive feedback. We are sorry to hear that there have been some issues between the surgery and the pharmacy. If you would like to contact us directly via the Feedback form on the website, we will have a look into this for you. Your input is valuable to us. Regards M. Rolph Business Manager

• Brilliant

  5

  Submitted by Collected by Healthwatch Norfolk staff 11th March 2024

  People don't realise how many patients they've got to deal with. Nine out of ten times they see me the same day. They're very good. There's several GPs who have been here years so there's continuity of care. The system in place where more trivial things are sent to the pharmacy isn't working though. I was advised to go to the pharmacy and the pharmacist didn't really look at it properly and then sent me back to the doctors.

• Reply from School Lane Surgery

  We appreciate your understanding of the challenges we face with patient volume. I am sorry that you have had an issue where you have been passed back to the surgery from the pharmacy. The system whereby we refer certain conditions to a pharmacy is called "PharmacyFirst". In some instances where a pharmacist reviews a patient, if they feel that the issue does require a GP they will refer the patient back to us. Thank you for your feedback and we will monitor any patients referred back to the surgery and work with local pharmacies to help ensure a smooth process for patients as much as possible. Regards M. Rolph Business Manager

• The system is a nightmare

  2

  Submitted by Collected by Healthwatch Norfolk engagement team 11th March 2024

  It's almost impossible to see a GP. So difficult if you have a full-time job as you can't get on the phone and reception say you can't book in person. When I see a Dr. it's excellent, the quality of the personnel is good but the management is not good! The system to access appointments is a nightmare. I was in A&E over Christmas and they told me to see a GP if I became unwell again, but I can't get in through the system and they won't make any exceptions. I feel I'm going to have to go to hospital just to be seen.

• Reply from School Lane Surgery

  We apologise for the inconvenience you've faced in accessing appointments or seeing a GP. Currently we are operating NHS England's suggested approach to booking appointments. This means that all requests for an appointment have to be triaged. At School Lane this is done in a dedicate GP led hub where all requests are triaged, the urgency is determined, and an appointment offered based on the details provided by the Patient. The situation is not unique to School Lane unfortunately. The increased demand faced by primary care, along with the lack of suitable funding and limits on GP training places, coupled with more staff leaving the service to work elsewhere means that we have to try to provide the best service possible to patients whilst taking all of these factors into account. We are actively recruiting for more Drs, and one has recently joined the team with another joining next month. We also have an Advanced Care Practitioner who will be joining the team in May. So, we hope to be able to increase the appointments offered to our patients. We will share this feedback with the Managers and Partners of the surgery and look at ways to continue to improve for all patients. Thank you for your feedback. Regards M. Rolph Business Manager

• I felt comfortable and safe

  4

  Submitted by Collected by Healthwatch Norfolk engagement team 11th March 2024

  Today I'm happy but that's not always the case. Today my 3pm appointment was cancelled but a GP rang me straight away and got me in for 10am. The Dr. listened to everything, all my history, did an examination and I didn't feel rushed. They were a junior Dr. as well but just as good and knowledgeable as the normal GPs. She understood my symptoms and seemed to be experienced. If you feel rushed and palmed off then you don't trust them but I felt comfortable and safe. She's looking into the cause as well as helping me with treatment now, which is how it should be. The receptionist I spoke to was brilliant. She listened, didn't speak over me and genuinely wanted to help. My experience isn't always good, it depends who answers the phone or what Dr. you get. Receptionists often speak over you and don't listen. I ended up in hospital with sepsis on a drip in ICU as I hadn't been able to get an infection treated.

• Reply from School Lane Surgery

  Thank you for your feedback. We are glad to hear that you have had a positive experience and we're sorry to learn about your negative experiences in the past. We are always keen to hear from patients and their views so that we can continue to improve as much as possible. We'll review the issue you expressed about staff not listening and ensure consistent quality in patient care. Your feedback helps us improve. Thank you for sharing. Regards M. Rolph Business Manager