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Poor Service at local health centre.

Posted By MichaelE

"Poor Service at local health centre."

About: NHS Highland (Health)

(as the patient),

For many years the overall standard of service and care I have received has been very poor in my local practice. Most of the staff at the reception are kind and courteous but there are a few who are rude and seem unwilling to help. I have been refused the facility to give repeat prescription orders over the phone for example . It's Practice policy!

There are good doctors there but in my opinion there are also down right incompetent ones who I don't feel listen to me and just prescribe pills as if they are going out of fashion. I had a problem with some medication, it was making me feel anxious and depressed. The advice I was given was to increase the dose.

I had a long term bout of severe insomnia and instead of being informed why long term use of sleeping pills is not a good idea I was told insomnia is not an illness and I should take anti-depressants because they are not addictive!

I myself was being treated for severe depression, I was hospitalised and eventually it was discovered I had a brain tumour.

I know doctors are not magicians and can make mistakes but the frequency of mistakes at my local surgery is high in my opinion.

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Responses

Response from Maimie Thompson, Head of Public Relations and Engagement, Chief Executive's Office, NHS Highland 12 years ago
Maimie Thompson
Head of Public Relations and Engagement, Chief Executive's Office,
NHS Highland

Submitted on 24/12/2011 at 15:51
Published on Care Opinion on 27/12/2011 at 08:41

picture of Maimie Thompson

MichaelE

Thanks for your feed-back. I am not sure what part of Highland this relates to which limits how I can help. Would you be able to drop me an e-mail and tell me a bit more? Maimie.thompson@nhs.net

Regards

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Response from Maimie Thompson, Head of Public Relations and Engagement, Chief Executive's Office, NHS Highland 12 years ago
Maimie Thompson
Head of Public Relations and Engagement, Chief Executive's Office,
NHS Highland

Submitted on 29/12/2011 at 11:27
Published on Care Opinion on 30/12/2011 at 11:48

picture of Maimie Thompson

By way of update, Michael has been in touch with some further information which will allow NHS Highland to follow up. Michael raised some further queries regarding complaints procedure as it relates to GP Practices.

What I have set out below is the formal route. But NHS Highland recognises that sometimes people dont want to formally complain but get more immediate feedback and understanding. We will continue to support patients have a voice both informally or formally. In this case I took advice from our Chair of Area Clinical Forum and this is what they recommended:

“I would advise the patient to go through the Practice's complaints procedure - again, if necessary. Every GP Practice must have a complaints procedure, and I am not convinced that the patient has been afforded the opportunity to complain in a way that is helpful for him, nor allows the Practice to respond."

In investigating your complaint we should aim to:

Find out what happened, and what went wrong

Enable you, if you would like, to discuss the problem with those concerned

Ensure that you receive an apology, if appropriate

Try to prevent the same thing happening in the future

If you would prefer to talk to someone who is not involved, you can telephone or write to:

The Complaints Team

NHS Highland

PO Box 5713

INVERNESS

IV1 9AQ

Tel: 01463 705997

Fax: 01463 711322

Email: complaints@mailbox.haht.scot.nhs.uk

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