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Rude staff and difficult to get timely...

Story from nhs.uk

"Rude staff and difficult to get timely..."

About: Twyford Surgery

Biggest problem here is probably the receptionists and admin - that's if you manage to get through to the reception over the phone at all. If you need an appointment on the day, you better have the number loaded on redial at 8am and have at least 30 mins to spare to get through.

It takes around 10 years to train as a GP, yet for some reason the receptionists at this place feel qualified to triage all sorts of things they have no understanding of - this usually means you get appointments with the wrong person, or not within reasonable time. (Seriously, a month for an appointment!) If you're persistent you might be able to argue your way into a "telephone consultation" - sometimes useful, but if you have an issue the GP needs to witness in person, not useful at all - but we take what we can get.

There are also at least a couple of GPs at this surgery (who I cannot name) who exhibit arrogance and disregard for their patients beyond belief. It should be up to doctors to identify and investigate problems, not patients to convince the doctor the issue is there.

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Responses

Response from Twyford Surgery 5 years ago
Twyford Surgery

Submitted on 05/04/2019 at 15:23
Published on nhs.uk at 16:06

I'm sorry for your experience at Twyford Surgery, Berkshire.

We are incredibly busy, are trying to recruit more GPs and staff but have been unable to get suitably qualified, experienced people since 2 partners retired in April 2018. The GPs have been working more hours including evenings and weekend appointments and have been paying for locums to try to cover our shortfall.

Our receptionists are asked to triage patients and we have guides for them to do this. Lots of appointments are booked for administrative issue which the GPs and nurses do not need to deal with. We have a mix of staff that they can offer appointments for. Often patients know what they want and this does not correlate with what they actually need and we often find ourselves dealing with the sickest patients after more routine issues which isn't safe for the patients or the staff. Implementing safe triage systems is difficult and we are, as I type, introducing a more structured protocol.

If you would like to contact us to discuss this further I would be very happy to hear from you. We can all learn from when things go wrong. However if you do not want to speak to me please contact Jo Barrett, the Practice Manager. I hope we can talk through your issue and reassure you that we are trying our best. Simon Ruffle

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