"Beeston Village Surgery Review and Appraisal"

In these days of constant attacking of the health services I thought it time that where there are good people and services it should be recognised and rewarded.

I have been a patient at Beeston Village Surgery for 25 years, during that period of time I can offer nothing but praise for the services provided and staff members present and past.

At this moment in time with the constant attacks on the GP services it would be very hard to find fault with this practice. You do not have to wait any length of time for a phone call to be answered a couple of minutes at the most and when you get through to the reception staff they are courteous, pleasant and helpful not at all like the press can picture them generally.

Having to wait long periods of time to see one of the three doctors or any of the clinical nursing staff is a very rare occurrence, most times an appointment is available the same day or the next not a common occurrence generally I think.

Appointments when made are confirmed in a text message to your mobile phone if there is one available or written down for people without one, similarly appointments requiring booking, regular check ups due to age or a known condition you are informed by post to give the surgery a ring or in my case a quick phone call a very personal service, well thought out and executed always.

Just this week I had occasion to visit a doctor who wanted to prescribe the same drug given by the hospital whose name I could not remember and the surgery had not been updated by the hospital. On my return home I rang the surgery and supplied the information and the receptionist took the details straight though and the prescription was completed, this was in spite of the surgery being under a lot of pressure with people waiting to see doctors and nurses, again a very personal service.

At the same time you never feel rushed when seeing the doctors and that includes all of them and the nurses as well, they talk to you and discuss the reasons why you are there and how they can help or where and why they are sending you onto hospital.

My wife was diagnosed with cancer in 2017, the care and support we both received right up until her death and afterwards in my case was marvellous.

Finally this is not a small quiet surgery, it is situated in a very busy area of Leeds with a very diverse population from all over the world with the associated cultural and language problems, all are welcomed and accommodated and given exactly the same level of service at this surgery just the same as everybody else, that to me marks my doctors as being a very special place to be part of and I count the people there not just as the staff but as friends because that's how they make me feel.

Andrew Summerscales.