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"Frustrating Practice"

About: Idle Medical Centre

I have been a patient of this practice since being a small child. I am now 53. Never in all the years have I been as frustrated about this practice as I am now. I have high blood pressure and have type 2 diabetes. Following recent blood tests done I received the results online and then received a text within two days from the results arriving. The text message asked me to book an appointment to speak to a go regarding the results all of which came back abnormal. This is where the practice is a complete let down and where if you suffer with high blood pressure ypu become infuriated and stressed...so, the next morning promptly at 8.30 I rung the practice. Busy line straight away...busy line for the next 15mins. Finally after 80 attempts at getting through...i managed to get through to be told it would be a phonecard from a gp..rather than face to face. Ok...so when would the gp ring...within 48hrs I was told, no time slot just within 48hrs. I am now on 48hrs...I rang the practice just before it closed today 18/04/2024 asking if I had missed being called has I had not received a call...I was then told by the receptionist.. "well actually, its 72hrs not 48hrs, so you will receive a call either Wed, Thurs or Friday."Its Thursday so obvs it'll be Friday now when I get the call. I am worried, I want to know what the abnormal blood results mean for me, and 72hrs is simply not acceptable to wait that long for an explanation of my results....I could go to A&E wait 16hrs and probably find out faster doing that. But I won't, I'll wait for the GP to ring. But how is this good practice? If I would have asked for a face to face appt i would probably have been seen...but who knows? In the past even though its post covid, I struggle to see a doctor face to face now at this practice. I can't fault the staff, the nurses are amazing, the receptionists take a lot of flack...but put of frustration of being messed about by the Gp's. I honestly don't get why post Covid they deem this a better way of working...not seeing patients. GP practices across the county are making our A&E's stretched simply by not seeing their patients in a timely manner. Or giving them an explanation of results in a timely manner. Allegedly according to the voice message you get whe you eventually get through on the phone, you can book an appointment t through Patchs ..despite having a login and an active account...I have never been able to book an appt this way....I actually wonder if the GP consultation rooms have GP,'s in them... there are 8 rooms but I bet at any given time there's only 4 GPS in. The website is a joke, what they promise and what they say they do was perhaps true 8 years ago...and they brag a rating of good...but this was from May 2016 no review has been posted since then...as I suspect they haven't had a good rating since. Covid has messed this practice up...they're still stuck in pandemic mode and think this is best practice. It's not.

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Responses

Response from Idle Medical Centre last week
Idle Medical Centre
Submitted on 19/04/2024 at 11:01
Published on nhs.uk at 11:01


Dear Pauline,

Thank you for your feedback. I am sorry you feel our service has failed you recently. I am Malcolm MacDonald, the Practice Manager.

You have raised a number of issues which I will try to address.

Following your recent blood test you received a text message asking you to make an appointment with a GP "within 2 weeks". This in itself makes clear that the matter was not urgent. We do try to endeavour to meet our 48hr call-back target but on this occasion we have failed and I apologize for this. The point about going to A&E for a blood test is somewhat spurious, we do not ask you sit and wait in the practice to get your results, simply to be available on your phone.

Our phone system is, and always will be, very busy at 08.30. If your reason for calling is not urgent, which yours wasn't, then you are better waiting till a little later (after 10.00) and you will almost certainly get straight through. We are introducing a new phone system later in the year which will eliminate the engaged tone as well as offering a range of other benefits.

We have adapted our model of operating to offer a range of appointment types and clinicians including Enhanced Access appointments in evenings and weekends both here and at other local practices.

We currently employ 11 GPs (1 on maternity leave) who work a variety of days and shifts. There a minimum of 4 GPs and a maximum of 7 GPs working at any one time.

You refer to our CQC rating of "Good" and question its validity. We have had 2 "remote" reviews since 2016 (this was a "physical" review). The last review was summer of 2023 and confirmed our "Good" rating. CQC have limited resources, like all parts of the NHS, and save their physical inspections for those organizations that are more problematic.

I hope I have addressed your issues but please feel free to contact me at the practice if there is anything you wish to discuss further.

Once again apologies for the issues you have had recently.

Kind Regards,

Malcolm MacDonald

Practice Manager

Idle Medical Centre

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