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Terrible service

Story from nhs.uk

"Terrible service"

About: The Valkyrie Surgery

Getting an appointment is extremely difficult if you work or cannot get to the surgery at the drop of a hat.

The surgery only have same day appointments available, but most of the time they are all gone before you can get through on the phone. They are available at 8 and 11, however even if you call at 8:00/11:00 it doesn’t mean anything; you are just told to call back at a less busy time. How am I supposed to work around this? If I wait until after 8am to wave for work (London 9-5) I’m going to be late, but I might not even get an appointment that day. Should my employers keep letting me arrive late to work day after day?! I absolutely cannot fathom the logic in this system. We need to book appointments in advance; not everyone has flexible workplaces, some of us have very important jobs which cannot just be left.

Once you actually get an appointment the doctors seem to be mostly helpful, however I have been prescribed an antibiotic I’m allergic to, even through I specifically said this to the doctor during the appointment.

I’ve also had issues with the receptionists; they were insistent that I have a blood pressure check before my pill ran out, when I finally made an appointment with a doctor to discuss my BP, the doctor was exasperated and said they would have to remind the receptionists again that the pill I’m on doesn’t need BP checks. Nice work!!

Another thing; the recorded message on the phone says to only stay on the line if your issue is urgent. What about people who don’t have something ‘urgent’ but it will become urgent without treatment. This message makes patients feel guilty and feel like they are wasting the surgery’s time. It’s unethical.

I think Covid has given this surgery a ridiculous ‘excuse’ to only have same day appointments which needs to be changed urgently. Everyone else is coping fine; why on earth can’t you book me an appointment for 2 weeks time?!

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Responses

Response from The Valkyrie Surgery nearly 2 years ago
The Valkyrie Surgery

Submitted on 24/05/2022 at 09:22
Published on nhs.uk at 13:52

Thank you for your feedback. I am sorry to hear that you have had some problems with the surgery. I would like to clarify some of the points you raised in your feedback.

We do offer pre-bookable appointments, the system opens these appointments during the month, some in 14 days,10 days, and 7 days. These are available through the receptionists, who would be happy to book these for you if available. All nurses appointments are pre-bookable, the Prescribing Nurse is able to issue prescriptions for minor ailments. Doctors, BP checks and phlebotomy are all available to book online, which may be helpful to you. You will also be given a choice of a telephone consultation or a face to face appointment. We understand that it is difficult for those working out of the area and were hopeful that the online service would assist you.

A number of appointments do open on the day, certainly not all. This is to help prevent wastage of appointments, this has remained the procedure for some time. We did find that by opening all of the appointments in the morning a number of patients would not attend even though they were booked the same day. Unfortunately we still have this issue and this helps to minimise the loss to a certain extent.

Although COVID has put enormous pressure on all surgeries, Valkyrie Surgery is one of the only surgeries never to have closed its doors to patients. We have continued to see patients face to face, initially at the start for emergencies, certainly for the last 12 months this restriction was lifted, however, we continue to ask patients to wear masks in the surgery, to reduce the risk for vulnerable unwell patients sitting in reception and our staff.

All patients are informed at the beginning of the recorded message when appointments for the day have gone, this avoids people waiting for long periods of time on the telephone. Patients are more than welcome to hold to speak with one of our reception team.

Regardless of medication, we ask all patients to have blood pressure checks, but more especially if they are taking regular medication, or are in a chronic disease category. It is our practice policy to monitor and opportunistically check patients during appointments. This can also be done on our Surgery Pod in reception.

Of course we understand that patients are not aware of the pressures we are currently under, please be assured that all staff are doing their very best to deal with all patients effectively and efficiently.

Once again apologies for the issues you have raised and please do contact the surgery directly to have a more personalised response as you have remained Anonymous.

Debbie Johnson

Practice Manager

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