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Was good but not that great since covid

Story from nhs.uk

"Was good but not that great since covid "

About: Elm House Surgery

Covid seems to have shut down any visits to GP's, have only managed to discuss issues on text or send photo's, and then I was called back by a nurse, not a GP. On one issue the call back by GP was a week after I had spoken to a consultant at Kings, as it was urgent, thankfully this doctor at Kings agreed to assist me. This was noted on my original econsult msg. Doctor seemed to think it was ok that I had spoken to Kings instead of her as 'she would have only done the same thing'. Yes but I'm the patient, not a paid GP, you are.

Impossible to get through on the phone, am sitting waiting to get through as I'm typing.

I feel that Covid is now an excuse to increase /switch to only phone call consultations. Phone calls are great for some things but not for others and who decides what is important enough to be discussed face to face ? Not the patients it seems.

I spend more time on hold at this surgery than doing anything else. Just got through after 20 mins to be told to call back at 8am to get a telephone appt or send an econsult email. Disappointing but not unsurprising.

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Responses

Response from Elm House Surgery 4 years ago
Elm House Surgery

Submitted on 16/06/2021 at 16:31
Published on nhs.uk on 17/06/2021 at 07:14

Thank you for taking the time to provide us with such valuable feedback. We are sorry that you have been unhappy with the service received of late.

We would be very happy to investigate your clinical concerns should you wish to provide us with full details via BROCCG.AdministrationElmHouse@nhs.net

Since we have been a local vaccination site for the Covid-19 vaccination programme our incoming call volume has increased significantly. We have done our best to mitigate against this by recruiting additional staff and funding additional telephone lines into the Surgery, however we appreciate it can sometimes still be busy to get through, especially during peak times. We will continue to work hard in order to improve on this.

We now offer patients the option of attending for a face to face consultation or a telephone consultation. Our reception staff have very recently been re-trained and are all aware of the requirement to respond to patient preference. The only exemption would be for patients who are displaying symptoms of Covid - these patients will be triaged by a clinician on the telephone first. There are a number of reasons why a telephone consultation may be more appropriate (for example, for a sick note extension, or a medication review), however patients are at liberty to attend in person if they they so wish.

Thank you for taking the trouble to write to us and we hope that your experience with the Surgery improves in the near future.

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