"Sometimes excellent care, waiting area now a..."

I've used this surgery for 15 years and travel further to get to it than my most local medical practice.

In my experience the care given by the GPs has been entirely dependent on the individual doctor.

Most recently I have had a really thoughtful and proactive consultation about relatively minor health issues with a GP I hadn't met before, who recommended a follow-up in a fortnight.

Proactive referral and follow-ups with the knowledgeable and friendly nurse who runs the asthma clinic has eliminated previously annual bouts of bronchitis - hurray.

In the past we have benefitted from the surgery's in-house physiotherapy appointments and CBT.

In the past one doctor behaved with insensitivity to my teenage daughter's mental health issues, and seemed to ignore the fact that she had run out of the surgery (on a rainy winter's night) in great mental distress. However despite their personal lack of demonstrable empathery we did get immediate referral to CAHMS services, and subsequently she saw a doctor who managed to make a good connection with her.

My regrets are that the waiting room area at the Harptrees surgery is becoming progressively less welcoming and more impersonal: the toys and magazines have been removed, there are no community / complementary care notices such as you find at other surgeries and it is very difficult to contact the practice to give feedback - except by a long standardised form in the waiting area. Wifi in the waiting area would be a real bonus.

And I find it a little annoying to be referred to by support staff as "Mrs" when I am Ms on my records - it just seems a little old-fashioned.