I was registering as new member and was having some difficulties. Not sure if it perhaps because they were slightly understaffed and admin was taking a backseat for the time being. It was over the busy Christmas period and since been resolved.
Reply from Thorpewood Medical Group
Dear Anonymous
Real apologies that you encountered this situation when trying to register as our patient.
Yes, we were prioritising 'sameday' care over the festive period, following on from a specific request from NHS England to support wider NHS system pressures, but this should not have impacted the administration needed to register with us a your doctors surgery.
It is good to at least understand that these issues have been now resolved - apologies again for the problems you encountered.
Ian Wilson
Practice Manager
Rubbish
2
Submitted by Anonymous16th January 2018
If you call or go in after 8am you can't get an appointment. It's rubbish. Doesn't seem to be many doctors at the surgery, the ones that are there, seem to move on fairly quickly. I've been here over 20 years, changed a lot in the last 10 years.
Reply from Thorpewood Medical Group
Dear Anonymous
Thank you for your comments, but I have to say I am slightly perplexed. We open the phones, and doors, at 8am, so that is when we start allocating the 100-120 'sameday' appointments that we have on any given day.These are prioritised to need, in line with NHS England's national guidance, with more minor needs being signposted to other, more appropriate NHS locations.
For more routine matters, or long-term conditions, which need a pre-bookable appointment in the future, we do ask patients to request these after 10am - simply to give the more urgent 'sameday' needs patients the priority that their medical needs require. That is absolutely in line with the NHS ethos of 'Right Care, Right Time, Right Place'.
You are correct that the Doctors have changed a lot in the last 10 years - 5 Senior Partners of the practice have indeed retired from General Practice in that time. However, we also have GP.s that have been with us for over 10 years, Dr Hampsheir for over 20. The replacements for the retirees have all stayed with us (apart from one re-location elsewhere in the UK), and are on the current staff of the practice.
The whole NHS has indeed changed over the last 20 years - as covered in the national print media over recent months. There is increasing specialisation within GP surgeries - moving away from the 'General Practitioner sees everything' mentality of maybe 20-30 years ago. We strive to provide the best possible care for your needs - whichever clinician sees you; but this may not be a GP as would have happened many years ago.
Ian Wilson
Practice Manager
Staff are good
4
Submitted by Anonymous16th January 2018
I think the surgery is a good one. It is a bit annoying as I can never get an appointment at Dussindale so they send me to Thorpewood instead. Staff are all good.
Reply from Thorpewood Medical Group
Dear Anonymous
Thank you for your rating of Thorpewood Medical Group, and the kind words regarding the staff here.
I can understand your annoyance regarding the capacity of the Dussindale Surgery, which currently has 3 clinical rooms, compared to the main surgery which has 15.
Frustratingly, our bid to NHS England for funding to increase the number of clinical rooms at Dussindale, is still stalled, some 15 months after it was announced as being 'approved'..... I do hope that in years to come you will see more appointments available at Dussindale - but that does depend on the satisfactory resolution of the funding issues!
Thank you again for your comments
Ian Wilson
Practice Manager
Nurse practitioners are excellent
5
Submitted by Anonymous16th January 2018
If you have an emergency you can get in every time, which is reassuring. Otherwise it can be a bit of a wait. The nurse practitioners are excellent.
I joined the surgery 4 months ago. It's been pretty good so far. Tend to see a nurse instead of a doctor, which is fine because they triage it properly. It's handy that the pharmacy is next door. It's nice that when I joined the practice they gave me a full health check.
Dear Anonymous
Thank you so much for your five star rating of Thorpewood Surgery, and your kind words. This is really much appreciated at this time of enormous pressures across the whole NHS.
Thank you.
Ian Wilson
Practice Manager
Getting worse
2
Submitted by Anonymous11th December 2017
I saw a doctor about a condition and was told to have a blood test. I didn't want to travel to NNUH for the blood test. They couldn't get me in before my holiday, I had to wait a month. Once I'd had my blood test, they then advised I book an appointment to talk about the results - No appointments available to be booked. This surgery had always been good, but now it's getting worse when I use it.
Reply from Thorpewood Medical Group
Dear Anonymous
I am very sorry that you feel things are getting worse; but I feel there are a couple of factors you should know which impact the points you make.
1) Our Phlebotomy service changed under a new contract from 1st April 2017. Previously, it was provided in partnership with the James Paget University Hospital, which the hospital ended on grounds of resource issues; we have now moved to the standard Phlebotomy contract available to all GP surgeries across Norwich.
You will have seen some changes on the back of this contract change - one of which is that our back up for illness/holidays of our employed Phlebotomist is indeed the NNUH Phlebotomy service. I am sorry that you do not wish to travel, but that is the offer from the wider NHS under this new contract, which is not part of the core activities of a GP surgery. We fought long and hard to keep a Phlebotomy service running at the surgery at all - and were very pleased that we were able to agree on the new contract from April 2017.
2) Under a specific request from NHS England, we moved all pre-bookable appointments over the festive period to become 'sameday' appointments - to support the wider NHS pressures over Christmas/New Year. These wider pressures have been widely reported across the media. I am disappointed that the reason you could not book an appointment as you describe was not fully explained to you at the time - hence your comments.
Thank you for your feedback, and I hope the explanations above help you to understand the impacts of wider NHS policy on the operations of the surgery.
Ian Wilson
Practice Manager
Listening ear
4
Submitted by Anonymous30th November 2017
I have been twice to this surgery and both times I have felt I was listened to and my concerns were addressed.
Dear Samantha
Thank you so much for your rating and kind words about Thorpewood Medical Group
Much appreciated indeed.
Kind regards
Ian Wilson
Practice Manager
Really look after you
4
Submitted by Anonymous19th September 2017
I have had an awful lot of help from this surgery over the years. They picked up my cancer very quickly and really looked after me.
Reply from Thorpewood Medical Group
Dear Anonymous
Thank you for the positive review and I am so glad to hear that we have given you really good care. I obviously hope that you are now over the cancer that you mention in your post.
Thanks again for the kind words.
Ian Wilson
Practice Manager