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"My recent visit"

About: Sexual Health Services - North Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent (Open Clinic)

(as a service user),

I posted a very negative update 16 months ago about the service I have received. I have used the clinic again this week, and thought I would update on my experience.

I called up first thing on a Monday morning and was advised I was in queue position 30. After waiting 25 minutes, I spoke with a receptionist who was able to offer me an appointment for the following afternoon. As this was not suitable, I was recommended to go to the walk in clinic at cobridge. As I had available time, this is what I did.

When I arrived the receptionist was very lovely and talked me through the walk in process. I then waited around 30 minutes to see the triage nurse. The nurse discussed options with me and advised I needed to see the doctor for a perscription. The nurse was very lovely and made me feel very comfortable.

I then waited about 45 minutes to see the doctor who was again very lovely and apologetic for the wait. We had a good discussion and she listened to my needs and we agreed on a treatment plan. I left with my medications and did not require to attend the pharmacy.

Since my last review the clinic has reopened their walk in service. This was extremely useful for me during my visit and I am glad they brought this back.Another one of my recommendations was that when you call up, the phone line gives you a queue position. It now does this when you call which is really useful. It looks like the have an online booking system on google though I’m not sure this is up and running. This could be something they are looking into. I am unable to get a regular prescription even though this was something I suggested, but was advised this was due to not being able to check background history which I completely understand.

Overall, it seems like following my previous review the clinic is beginning to improve following the pandemic. The cobridge clinic has been a place I’ve visited regularly for the last four years due to my diagnosis, and I am glad to see it is improving once again.

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Responses

Response from Julia Barraclough, Operational Service Manager, North Staffordshire & Stoke on Trent Sexual Health & HIV Service, MPFT 2 years ago
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Julia Barraclough
Operational Service Manager, North Staffordshire & Stoke on Trent Sexual Health & HIV Service,
MPFT

I am the Operational Service Manager for the sexual health services across Stoke, Staffordshire, Shropshire and Telford. I support the wider teams to ensure our services are of a high quality and accessible for our service users.

Submitted on 05/07/2023 at 20:18
Published on Care Opinion on 06/07/2023 at 07:34


picture of Julia Barraclough

Dear Jupiter6292

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on the service you received. I am particularly grateful that you have detailed the difference between your experience 16 months ago compared to your more recent attendance.

We genuinely value the feedback our patients provide as it enables us to look at ways to continuously improve how we deliver our services.

It is good to see that the re-introduction of the walk-in has improved your access to our service, and I do recall your previous feedback about our telephone system. We have implemented a new telephone system with a Single Point of Access which does give our patients a clearer idea of how long they will be waiting in a 'call queue' before their call is answered, and we have recruited more staff to answer calls. My aim is to get our call answering below 10 minutes and we do monitor this, so thank you for holding on for 25 minutes and I hope you see this reduce in the future!

Our online booking is taking longer to implement but we do now have a plan in place to have this up and running by the end of the year.

I appreciate your comments about the quality of service you received from our reception staff, doctor and nurses and this has been shared with the team.

Kind regards.

Julia Barraclough - Operational Service Manager

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