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Care Opinion

Impersonal and bureaucratic new procedures

Posted By Disgruntled Jew

"Impersonal and bureaucratic new procedures"

About: Stamford Hill Group Practice

(as a service user),

I have been with Stamford Hill Surgery since 1984, one of the first registered patients with the kind of family GP practitioner that has vanished with the new 24/7 impersonal changes that feel like they treat a patient like me as an inconvenience.

Try to get an appointment through the switchboard feels like a lottery unless one calls at 8AM, along with dozens of others who have the same idea. The same goes for the on-line Patient Access platform that no longer lists appointments with my primary GP. The rest is luck of the draw... Whether the scheduled phone call comes on time or the follow up happens at all. And the merry-go-round starts again...

Last but not least, the reception staff have been rude and obtuse at the best of times... placed to drive a wedge between the GP and patient. Making judgements about medical access that is not their remit.

I am honestly thinking leaving the surgery after 36 years, probably welcome by all round.

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Responses

Response from Tania Fidler, Practice Manager, Stamford Hill Group Practice 3 years ago
Tania Fidler
Practice Manager,
Stamford Hill Group Practice

Manage the day to day running of the practice

Submitted on 26/10/2020 at 20:21
Published on Care Opinion on 27/10/2020 at 12:56

Dear Sir or Madam

Thank you for sending your views and concerns and I would like to offer some feedback to you and the opportunity to discuss this in more detail with you.

General Practice has changed vastly since 1984 and ever more so since March of this year. We are currently offering four ways of booking an appointment; as you say calling the surgery on the day at 8am is one option as is on-line appointments available 24 hours in advance. We also have another system available 24 hours in advance called Patient Partner where you can book an appointment using your telephone key pad and we are now introducing on-line consultations where you can type your concerns and a GP will respond electronically.

Since March we have had to give a wider window of time for clinicians to respond to patients due to the telephone consultation turning from a triage call to a full telephone consultation which can take much longer than a face to face appointment however our clinicians do endeavour to contact patients as close to their appointment time as possible,

You referred to your preferred GP not being available, I would suggest checking our website or with the surgery to see if that doctor is still a GP with the practice and their working days/times.

If you wish to call me at the surgery to speak with me about your experiences with the reception team I will be back in the surgery from 2 November 2020 and I work full time so I will be available to discuss specific examples with you, I want to reassure you however that our reception staff are not intending to be a barrier between you and the doctor or medical support but are working closely with our clinical team to give the best advice possible to our patients.

Thank you for your feedback and I hope that we can get the opportunity to discuss further.

Tania Fidler (Practice Manager)

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