"Not happy"

The best experience I had at this surgery was with a locum doctor who was extremely considerate, lovely and helpful.

Other doctors I have seen have been OK - though my most recent was disappointingly dismissive and tried to find contradictions in my struggle to explain my problem. All appointments seem to be at least 20-30 minutes late, so make sure you don’t have anywhere to be afterwards.

Unfortunately, the reception staff are what completely ruin it for me: the customer service skills of these staff leave a lot to be desired. When I went to register at the surgery, one receptionist told me a time I could come for an appointment the same afternoon, but when I arrived it turned out she has got her 24 hour clock mixed up and told me the wrong time. She patronized me and talked curtly, even though this was clearly her mistake.

While in the waiting room for my most recent appointment, I heard a receptionist rudely tell a patient that she couldn’t help as she was ‘in the middle of doing something’. She also dismissed a patient’s concerns that there was a lack of information for non-British patients regarding the process of visiting a doctor, telling them that their procedure was the same ‘across the board’, even though that seemed to be clearly irrelevant when providing basic information on what to do.

On numerous occasions patients have tried to ‘check in’ at the screen - however, when this doesn’t work and the patient has to queue for a receptionist, the receptionists always interrupt and ignore the patient’s request for help by insisting that they should sign in using the screen.

Overall, while I am sure that the doctors are fine, the experience of visiting the surgery has always been uncomfortable for me, and I wouldn’t recommend to anybody. I will be trying to find a new surgery to register with as soon as possible.