"My experience with the surgery"

0/5 STARS ! I have been under this GP surgery for around 6 years and only stayed under them so long because it would have effected my referrals to specialists.

My experiences include but are not limited to:

•Refusal to help on the phone and being directed to the E-Consult all the time without caring to ask or listen to why you need help.

•Actively being lied to by members of staff about named GP being off sick and then when I attended that day seeing my GP leave a room in the surgery. Looked at me like a deer in headlights.

•Actively being lied to by GP that they were referring me for an MRI for my knees only to get an appointment letter for MSK at a hospital 8-9 miles away when I was crying in that appointment from the pain, barely able to walk and had expressed I was unable to do any daily tasks.

•Rarely being called on time for appointments but when you are a little late being made to feel rubbish for it and being told you have to book another appointment

•Failure to provide information and an insight into medical staff thought processes allowing me to make informed decisions and have a say in my care but instead the medical staff doing what they think without explaining to me why.

•No attempt in integrated care for me as someone with complex conditions.

•Most of my issues being sent for referrals rather than being handled in surgery but when those referrals have been declined or ran into any issues I have never been informed. When I have failed to been provided support by specialists or discharged unfairly no support was provided by GP surgery.

•I have requested several forms / letters in evidence to education providers, DVLA regarding medical license and others which are never filled out promptly, accurately, or sufficiently. They have actively been a detriment to me. I had an appointment to discuss DVLA medical form completion to ensure we were on the same page. In appointment they stated I don’t see the problem and why they need me to do this and then upon requesting DVLA to tell me why they took revoked my license I found out that very same GP ticked a box to say I was unfit on the road. When I managed to speak to the GP I could not even say hello before they apologised profusely and said they will make it right but the reality is that still affects me today. Every time I have been charged £30. I am on benefits and cannot afford this multiple times because the surgery does not want to do it correctly the first time.

•The GP never contacted me after hospital visits or admissions even for suicidal ideation and attempts to the extent I was labelled a frequent attender

•The GP surgery knowing that a lot of my conditions could be supported by losing weight but that it is difficult to do with an eating disorder. A referral was made to Maudsley and I was referred to typical community services but no support from the surgery themselves or other specialist support whilst awaiting that referral to be picked up [I was on a waiting list for a long time].

My complaint:

After 6 years and final straw, I complained and myself and a senior member of staff exchanged several letters via email. The first response stated at the end that if I wasn’t happy with their response to either change my GP surgery or go to the Parliamentary Ombudsman. I knew then they did not care to handle my complaint properly. Throughout the letters they misread my correspondence, contradicted theirself from one letter to the next, might as well have called me a liar, offered solutions then revoked them all the while maintaining a dismissive and invalidating tone throughout. They took it upon theirself to tell me they were marking my complaint as resolved, though it was not resolved due to what I feel was their unwillingness to care about patient concerns and lacking in compassion needed to take patient concerns seriously. 

Outcome:

I changed my GP surgery because I deserve better than to be treated this way by my GP surgery.