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Poor Practice

Story from nhs.uk

"Poor Practice "

About: Dishley Grange Medical Practice

I’ve waited one hour on the telephone this morning (from 8.30 to 9.30) to request an appointment with the gp, only to be advised by an automated service, that I was 24 th in the queue and that all the gp appointments had now gone for the day. This problem has been ongoing at this surgery for the last two years and certainly not just because of covid. I feel deeply sorry for the reception team who must have constant abuse from patients, as the long wait on the telephone and lack of appointments is so frustrating . The system clearly needs urgently reviewing, as it’s just not working. How many bad reviews does the practice need before management take action? I’ve re registered today at a different surgery, within 30 minutes of re registering at the new practice I had received a call from the on all gp and a same day face to face appointment. Really good care is out there, it just needs good management to get it organised.

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Responses

Response from Dishley Grange Medical Practice 3 years ago
Dishley Grange Medical Practice

Submitted on 16/02/2022 at 12:05
Published on nhs.uk at 16:52

Dear Patient,

We are very sorry to hear that your recent experience with Dishley Grange Medical Practice did not reflect the standards in which we aim to work.

Our patient’s experience is of paramount importance to us, and we would like to thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention.

Our phone lines tend to be at its busiest between the hours of 8-9am and the practice can receive up to 300 calls just in this first hour. We ask patients that require a routine appointment to call in after this time to help relieve pressures off the appointment system.

Alternatively, the practice has also introduced the ‘Queue Buster’ option. This option allows you to disconnect your call but will hold your position in the queue. Once a member of our team becomes available the automated system will call you back on your dialled line to connect you with a member of our team.

It is our hope that this system, when utilised effectively will help minimise the pressures off our phone lines and help patients with our queueing system.

Due to demand in service, our appointments can get booked very quickly. This is due to changes at a national level, unfortunately currently there is little we can do to increase the number of appointments that we offer as this is sadly beyond our control.

Nevertheless, we will continue to review our appointment system to see if we can improve the way in which our service is offered.

Again, we are very sorry for your experience, and we would like to thank you for your valuable feedback and allowing us the opportunity to reflect on the service that we offer.

Yours Sincerely,

Dishley Grange Medical Practice

Patient Service and Quality Team.

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