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Shambles really

Story from nhs.uk

"Shambles really"

About: Beacon Medical Group

Takes hours to get through to them on the phone, you either get kicked off the line or spend hours in the queue. When you get through you either get told you have to do an econsult again or get a mouthful for not being around to answer the phone when the doctor rings (even if you're at work!). If you get a ring back from the doctor they pay no attention to if you've said you can only be reached at certain times before or after work and try to ring twice whilst you're at work and then wont try to ring again. If you get through to admin on the phone they have a go at you for not answering the phone when the doctor rang (again, even if you explain you were at work). Why they cant give you the option to choose a time slot for the doctor to ring you in I'll never know, it would prevent so much time wasting! Oh and it takes over a week for repeat prescriptions to be reviewed and released to the pharmacy so best order it a month in advance if you dont want to run out of your essential medication, oh but then you cant request it more than a week before you run out so will you get your meds in time... who knows!

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Responses

Response from Beacon Medical Group nearly 2 years ago
Beacon Medical Group

Submitted on 04/07/2022 at 14:18
Published on nhs.uk at 18:32

Thank you for taking the time to provide Beacon Medical Group with your feedback. We appreciate you doing this.

I am sorry to learn that your patient experience was not at the standard that you would have expected and I would like to apologise for this.

Beacon Medical Group introduced the total triage system in November 2019 and when patients provide information or have a query, this is passed to the most appropriate person. We do ask where possible that our patients use our online services as this frees up the telephone lines for those that are not able to do so.

Depending on the medical urgency, the patient will be contacted via telephone or video call within 48 hours and a call will be attempted on two separate occasions. If there is no response, a text message or email is issued to the patient to make them aware that calls have been attempted.

We are unable to provide a timeslot for when our patients will be contacted as the GP or other appropriate team member will contact the patients on their list according to the patient’s medical urgency.

I apologise that you have experienced a long wait whilst attempting to contact us. I can advise that on average Beacon Medical Group receives an average of over 700 calls a day which increases to over 1000 calls on average on a Monday. Our teams work hard to deal with this volume of calls and aim to provide the best possible customer service.

We advise our patients that prescriptions requests can be made 10 days before their medication is due. This is processed within 2 days of receipt. If you have access to request prescriptions using our online services, this will then be sent to your nominated pharmacy and you can request a copy of the barcode for the prescription if you have any problems receiving this.

If you have been experiencing problems with your prescription, please contact us using the following email address: beaconmedicalgroup@nhs.net

Thank you

Caroline Hayward

Patient Liaison and Communications Lead

Beacon Medical Group

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