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No Time for Special Needs

Story from nhs.uk

"No Time for Special Needs"

About: Bellegrove Surgery

Please do not attend this surgery if you want fair treatment as an individual with special educational needs, especially autism. They have made many mistakes with my appointments over the past two years; on one occasion I received a reminder text telling me about an appointment but when I turned up at that time I was told I was ten minutes late, and despite my showing them the text they still considered this my responsibility. In addition to this they once booked me in to see a Doctor I had specifically requested not to see in the past, as they show so little compassion for mental health needs; I had booked in to see the same GP I always see, the one good GP I have ever seen at this surgery, but arrived, waited half an hour past my appointment time, then got told I had to see a doctor I had not arranged to see and who I have a personal issue with. I had a panic attack, as most people with autism will probably be able to relate to, given the circumstances. I have since been struck off from the GP register, even though the letter they sent me to tell me so clearly states you get a 'warning' for any 'incident' and then following this will be struck off if there are further incidents. I received no warning; because of their mistake causing me to cry on the floor in distress for about ten minutes I was told I could not attend this doctor anymore. For neurotypical people who don't mind multiple mistakes being made and blamed on them, choose this GP, for everyone else, avoid.

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Responses

Response from Bellegrove Surgery 8 years ago
Bellegrove Surgery

Submitted on 16/12/2016 at 14:24
Published on nhs.uk on 10/04/2018 at 17:45

Dear patient – thank you for taking the time to comment on our surgery. It would seem that you have been unhappy with the service we have provided at Bellegrove Surgery & that you were removed from our register.

I would like however to reply to some of your concerns:

Any SMS text reminder messages are taken via an automated system from our vision appointments with the date and time of the appointment. This SMS message is automatically documented on the patient’s vision notes making mistakes very rare and unlikely.

All appointments booked via the telephone are confirmed, when booked, with the date and time of appointment, along with the GP/Nurse with whom you have booked. Whilst there is some element of human error possible with this system I can assure you that all staff do their very best to book patients with the GP of their choice where appointments are available.

GPs do sometimes run late during booked clinics as they often have to spend extra time with more involved patients or if emergencies occur this can make our 10 minute appointment allocation overrun. Unfortunately whilst this is not ideal our GPs would hope that patients understand that they do try to prevent this happening where possible.

In regard to our Zero Tolerance Policy which all New Patients are asked to sign, I have attached an extract below:

‘I further understand that should I be a party to violent, threatening or abusive behaviour towards any member of staff of a primary care facility, then I will expect that certain sanctions will be applied to me.

This could include removal from the general practitioners medical list or being seen at an approved secure centre for violent patients.’

If a patient were to act in a manner that frightened our staff and the patients in our waiting room, we would consider this to be threatening and abusive behaviour and as per the wording in our policy, we have the right to remove them from our register.

Any patient removed from our register is sent a letter clearly explaining why they have been removed.

I hope this helps you to understand some of our procedures and wish you well in your search for a GP who you will be happy with.

Mrs Kim Hunt

Practice Manager

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