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"General healthcare received here"

About: General practices in Lothian

(as a carer),

I have been with this GP surgery for about 3 years now, and I have had a mostly positive experience here. The Dr's are kind and will take the time to listen to you. They may not always be super-knowledgeable on specific subjects (at the end of the day I don't expect that) but can provide tools to take away and research yourself and come back for further discussions to ensure the best treatment etc. I like this approach as it feels patient-centered and more human, it's easier to make a connection and at least for myself I feel more heard and understood as a patient.

The receptionists are also kind here, and they work hard, especially as every morning they have a long telephone queue of people hoping for an appointment and they are pretty speedy about getting through to everyone. I have almost always gotten an appointment this way, but sometimes the system can boot you off the call randomly or if you are a little late calling (i.e. 9:30am), after the morning rush it's unlikely you'd get an appointment.

The main negatives I have would be that (1) the prescription system can be a bit more complicated than expected if you have to renew monthly and it's not automatic or sent to a small pharmacy very local to the surgery, (2) the phone system - while commonplace across the UK since covid - is still not great to navigate and I wish there were options that were a little more flexible or accessible to people who are unable to make a call at 8 am daily in the hopes of getting an appointment, and lastly (3) while this isn't an issue against the individual GPs, I have been told conflicting information about medication I could receive for a specific condition - but this seems to be more related to NHS Lothian guidelines rather than their ability to treat being different from each other. 

The building itself is easy enough to navigate, it's pretty well situated at least for me and my home, and it feels clean and fairly modern. If a friend or colleague moved to the local area, I would recommend my GP surgery,.

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Responses

Response from Claire Withnell, Patient Experience Officer, Patient Experience Team, NHS Lothian nearly 2 years ago
Claire Withnell
Patient Experience Officer, Patient Experience Team,
NHS Lothian
Submitted on 24/08/2023 at 11:15
Published on Care Opinion at 11:15


picture of Claire Withnell

Dear EdinburghLizard,

My name is Claire and I work for the Patient Experience Team at NHS Lothian. Firstly let me thank you for sharing your kind feedback with us on Care Opinion.

This is lovely feedback to read about your Medical Practice. As you mentioned the patient-centred approach from the Doctors, allowing you to discuss and research treatments, allows you to feel heard and understood. Also the treatment you have received from the reception staff sounds as if they are very efficient and kind.

With regards to the points you have made about the prescription and phone systems, and the medication guidance, can I suggest that you may wish to share your feedback directly with the Practice Manager? This will allow them to address these issues and provide you with a response.

Once again thank you for sharing this feedback.

Best wishes,

Claire

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