"Too large, too impersonal & lost the personal..."

My husband & I were patients with this practice for approx the last 20 years. Overall the service we and our children received over the years has been good but unfortunately we've had some difficult interactions that prompted us both to feel relieved that we moved out of the catchment area so we could change our GP practice.

My husband & I have both found over the years that on the whole the GP's have been satisfactory and the main difficulties we often had was with the receptionists because at times they appeared defensive, rude & unhelpful. However, we noted a positive change with the recent merge, but the sad thing is during my last few appointments with the practice nurses they have appeared to be very disappointing with one exception of the nurse who carried out my recent smear test as I found her to be very professional, she was friendly, informative and appeared extremely motivated to ensure that I understood the proceedure and I felt relaxed & respected.

Unfortunately, the experiences I've had by the other practice nurses have not been positive as they appeared rushed, uninterested resulting in myself feeling rushed, not able to feel relaxed, respected or dignified feeling I was in a cattle market. I found them to be unprofessional often chatting to each other and or shouting to each other in the different rooms infront of the patients or talking about your care/ proceedure to each other which made me feel embarrassed, humiliated and uncomfortable. On one occasion, I was called into the clinc room by one nurse and on entering the room there was another nurse standing there with her arms folded asking why I was was there and why I needed my blood test. Although, if they would of checked my notes beforehand they would of been informed.

It was not a pleasant experience in fact I felt embarrassed and humiliated so much that I could not wait to get out of the surgery and hope I did not need their service again!

Prior to moving house, we knew we would feel some fondness and sadness of leaving that area but we have no regrets leaving this GP surgery.

We have chosen a smaller GP surgery which appears friendly, helpful and professional. It may not appear to have as many clinics or services like this one but we are much happier and feel reassured that when the time comes that when we need a service we are connected to a GP surgery that gets the basics right rather than trying to look good with services they can't deliver effectively.