Satisfied with your GP practice?

Our GP practice has improved slightly, it was very poor, however it is now run by locums so never see the same one twice for follow up of care.
What does irritate me is, when I read my record of my visit information that wasn't asked of me is put down !
This happens frequently.

Not happy with ours at all. Getting a face to face appointment has been almost impossible since covid, yet if you call in to pick up a script etc the waiting room is empty. The practice in our next village has closed and they've taken their patients on, even though they can't cope with the ones we have. Trying to phone through is impossible, but if you do an e consult on line -has to be done at 8am, then the GP will phone you back. All 4 of our GP's work in private practice at a hospital as well.

Our GP practice is 'alright'. Rarely see the same doctor twice and it's usually someone in their final year of training. We don't have to wait long to get through to Reception, the receptionist takes a message and a doctor rings back the same day. The doctor then either makes an appt or issues a prescription. I am fortunate to be able to see a private physiotherapist; I don't hold out much hope with our NHS physio system.

Ours is excellent. It is a huge practice In Newark. Thankfully, so far, we have not needed to bother them very much. Just an annual check-up and the various injections that older people are frequently offered these days. Follow up is quick if any of the blood or urine tests show up anything that needs attention. I think they do a terrific job.

I am reasonably happy with our GP practice. It isn't perfect but, as we live in a heavily populated and not especially wealthy part of London, I think it does a pretty good job.

Mogsmaw The arrangement your practice has over the Christmas period seems totally unsatisfactory to me - and what happens if people do not have a computer to make appointments? Surely this can't be right?

well in my old practice I was known by the doctors and was very satisfied with the treatment I got. They of course, knew me over the years and were aware that I only came to the doctors if I was absolutely stuck and couldnt manage without help. I had ovarian cancer, and had operation, 6 months chemo etc etc. I moved to another town during covid to a ground floor flat , trying to keep myself independant as long as possible . I had also done 10 years of 3 days a week as a hospital car driver volunteer, so am very aware of not wasting appointments or calling for unneccesary home visits. Due to the covid situation, no one was going to the doctors to sit there or anything. I had my prescription, am diabetic, and I had never met the doctors, nor had any contact with them. So, I had looked at a red mark near my ankle and wondered how that had arrived there, not had any knocks. Dismissed it but the next day my leg started to swell a great deal to the extent that I had to change my trousers to a very wide legged pair. It was a friday, so I decided that I needed to see someone, as I did not want to have to call out an ambulance over the weekend . So I rang and spoke to a receptionist who was most unhelpful. I insisted that I needed to see someone that day, and told her if the doctor looked at my record he would see how little I had visited the doctors. I refused to let her arrange for an appointment for the monday and so with a very bad grace she begrudgingly said that I could come. I have had my covid jabs as had my friend. I had to ask her to come and take me in her car, as I didnt think it was safe to drive my car. Got there and the receptionist said in rather a brusque manner , sit in the green corridor area. I asked where that was, as a) I had never been there before and b) my back was very painful as was my leg, and couldnt walk well or quickly. When the screen lit up with my name I got up and struggled to walk down a long corridor. The doctor came out of his door to see where I had got to. When I got into the surgery, I said first let me show you my legs. I sat down and pulled up the trousers. His face changed, and he said "Oh, just sit there I will be back in a minute" and disappeared down the corridor. Came back and asked how I had got there and i told him my friend had brought me. Thought he would then get me some antibiotics or whatever, but he said "I have rung the hospital and can she take you straight there" It turned out to be cellulitis, which I had not heard about and never met before. I ended up having to have 16 days of intravenous medication and if I had waited until monday things could have been even worse. As I went to go to the car park, I smiled at the doctor and said "I am pleased to have met you, sorry I had to be so insistent, but if you look at my records you will see that I never waste your time. Since then I have got cancer again, and when I get to see them the doctors and nurses here are very good, but partly due to the covid situation, I have never got to know any of the staff as I did with my previous surgery, and do not feel that there is any personal knowledge of me or my situation. So what they miss is things like, if I went to have a diabetic check up or have my eyes tested if there was something else that I hadnt noticed but as they knew me they would pick up on it.
I also get angry on other peoples behalf, because of the booking situation etc. Not everyone has a phone or a laptop , and can only walk in and book, or ring up from a phone box or have the money to use a mobile when you are hanging on for 10 minutes to be spoken too, but because the actual phone is answered you are paying for that call!!! So once again
those who have less get poorer service if they cannot afford to be on the phone for ages. There are those who have money and can choose to go private, if the NHS cannot help them in a short time, but that is still a form of queue jumping , because most of us do not have the possibility to do that, so we need to make the situation better for everyone. If we all had the money available and chose to spend it on other things that would be a different matter , but for so many of us we do not have that option. Sitting in a hospital A@E waiting area, you may see someone who came in after you but is taken in first. That is because the triage there is looking to see who needs the most urgent treatment. Would you want someone to bleed to death or stop breathing because you were in front of them in the queue.? Well we all understand that need, and so in the same way, someone having the money to go privately, is a legal possibility, but I feel it is wrong that money is the way that things are chosen over need. Everyone has their own feelings about this and I lived abroad and could have had private medicine through the firm when I was back in England , but it was against my principles, so I have had the possibility to do that, it is not that I was never in a position to be able to afford it.

We moved house four years ago and I was worried about registering quickly with a GP practice as my husband takes a lot of medication. We needn't have worried, I asked a local pharmacist which practice he would recommend, emailed them and within the day we were registered and had our online accounts set up.
The receptionists are efficient rather than friendly, but I've been able to get an emergency appointment when necessary. We can also contact them online and always get a message or phone call within 24 hours, faster if they deem it a serious problem.
I think that there is one lead GP and a few temporary and part time doctors, but all we have seen have been fine, as have the Nurses, PA's and others.
I've had a few problems in the last year and have always been referred on quickly. The only bottlenecks here are for blood tests which seem to have a wait of more than two weeks, but I'm guessing that if there was an urgent problem there would be a way to get it done.
We often get a satisfaction survey of some kind after a series of appointments and I'm sure that they would pick up on any problems quickly.
The surgery building houses at least two other practices and I know that one of these is deemed to be unsatisfactory by the powers that be, but our practice shows how it can be done.

We feel very lucky to have a great GP practice which is in a village nearby along with a dental practice next door. I’m happy to have a telephone consultation for most things and when I needed to see a GP face to face was able to say which one I would prefer to see. I do think a lot of people are time wasters who see a GP for the slightest thing, a cold and so on. The NHS gets abused by so many too.

I chose my GP practice after moving to my present home ten years ago because it's within walking distance of where I live, and my former sister-in-law's family had used the same practice for many years.
The GP's and the services they provide are OK I suppose, but it's getting throiugh to them on the phone that's the bugbear. If I want an appointment I have to phone up when the surgery opens and when (IF) I get through the receptionist asks me what's wrong with me and why do I want to see a doctor - I sometimes wonder if they are medically qualified to ask all this personal information over the phone!
In the end I've decided it's easier to get an appointment and speak toa real live person if I simply wlk the 1/4 mile each way to the surgery to arrange an appoint,ent in person. The problem there is that I have angina and early-stage heart failure so walking that sort of distance is a bit of a strain, especially at this time of year.
I therefore only try to contat the GP surgery if I feel I'm in dire need, after having first dialled 111 to fond out whether my requirement warrants a GP appointment or a trip to A&E.

I have no idea. I moved across the country 18 months ago and have yet to have contact, other than production line vaccinations and on
One prescription renewal.
It seems that it is easier to get an audience with the Pope than a face to face appointment with a doctor…. As for dragons!🐉

I have no complaints about our GP's. Everyone from reception staff to nurses, dispensary staff, and doctors are all warm and friendly.

My only complaint is that the doctor I usually see, known as H, is leaving next week to move to the Caymans.

The practice we had been with for fifty years was overwhelmed and it took over a month each time to get an appointment. Never saw the same person twice. This is mainly down to part time doctors and too much house building in the area. After a lot of thought we changed to a smaller practice and I can’t praise them highly enough. You always get an appointment quickly, doctors ring you with advice and if you are really ill, you get seen immediately. Just how it used to be. So so grateful for this.

Yes, very much so.

In that online survey my surgery comes above average in nearly every section and I totally agree
I much prefer the online email communication and have only ever had very quick responses, last year I had a badly infected foot I sent an online email with a online photo and within a very short time I had an answer with the prescription waiting for me at my nearby pharmacy
Within 2 hours I was using the medication I thought that was wonderful and my foot did also

No. I was fobbed off with a paramedic whom misdiagnosed the problem which wasted time and money. We need more real doctors.

Thanks for the link ftm420
For our practice, it showed that less than a third of the surveys sent out were returned.

On one of the questions about accessing the surgery, it reported that responses from people who said they have been unable to get through had been excluded from the results.

Ours has gone from being the absolute best in a very wide area to the most complained about. The problem is, we have had massive building programmes, the catchment area is enormous, they are having trouble recruiting and they are finding it impossible to keep up. This has the effect of stressing the staff who end up needing to take sick leave so the problem snowballs.
I do find that treating the receptionists like human beings rather than guard dogs really helps with the service you get! I also accept that nowadays you only see a Dr if the triage service thinks it is appropriate.
I think the questionnaires you get to fill in after an appointment are perhaps weighted to making the service out to be better than it is. They don't ask how long you had to wait, how many times you tried to make the appointment but failed and how long you spent on the phone trying to get through. Consequently, my reviews are always positive because once I step through the door, I have no complaints.

Who did they ask? Not me? Not you?
My surgery receptionist are OK. A couple of nurses (healthcare people) got new titles are nice.
But the doctors? Never ever see them! Don’t know their names or what they look like?
Just dread ever trying to contact the surgery!

Mine is not good at the moment.
We belong to a group which services several surgeries in mine and other nearby towns. It is impossible to find a list of docters and end up seeing a different one every time.
We just belong to a Practice, no named docter.
It is souless.

The practice I am with has been closed for 2 months because "heating and hot water has broken down", not expected to re-open for at least another 2 months. Meantime we are directed to their sister practice which is quite a distance away and not on a bus route, so if you don't have a car or someone to drive you there then you are out of luck. Even when it was open a face to face appointment was almost impossible, I rang because I was experiencing pain on my breast and as I have a history of breast cancer I wanted it checked, I was told it was a "routine" appointment and I would receive a phone call in 3 weeks!

When I joined asked who my named doctor was and was told "we don't do that", explained it was an NHS requirement, took several weeks and an email to the practice manager before being given a named doctor - who I have never seen.

The local pharmacy will no longer order repeat prescriptions as the practice has made it too difficult for them.

I am planning to move to another practice in the New Year

Ours are good on the whole, but very let down by new (very young) receptionists who think they know everything and we are just there to stop them chatting. Thankfully the senior receptionist is an absolute star, has been there for as long as I can remember and I dread her ever retiring. I can have a telephone consultation with a dr or nurse and a follow up face to face if needed. Had to complain recently as they were happy to let my insulin dependent husband go a week without as his pen broke and they wouldn’t issue disposables until the pen arrived at the chemist-they ordered the wrong one at first(his fault they said as his pen is an older version 🤷🏻‍♀️) and said if he needed insulin to go to A&E…..so go and wait for at least 5 hours to repeat in 12 hours……then got snotty when we said No!

Very happy with my GPs. Earlier this year they asked me to send a picture of a rash on my leg and then , after they’d seen it, I had to go straight in and then to the hospital . All sorted in no time. I was , as always, impressed.

The annual survey carried out for 2024 which I referenced above had 699,790 responses Farzanah and mirrored the results of this much smaller survey. How many responses are needed to produce a result, I would have thought a sample size of nearly 700,000 was enough?

Farzanah
^I looked at the results for my surgery. The surgery is much worse in practice than the results suggest. So I checked how representative it was.
231 given survey. 101 responded. 44% of those surveyed is not representative of thousands registered at my surgery. Paper exercise.^
Unless the survey is made available to a larger group and completed by a larger number, it can’t be anything but a paper exercise.
Judging by previous complaints on GN (not on this thread) about inability to get through to the surgery, get an appointment, see a doctor, book a follow-up appointment, etc. I wonder how truly representative this survey is.

ftm420

Interestingly, only 29% of those contacted actually responded, but only 300 or so were contacted in the first place. My practice has >20,000 patients!

I looked at the results for my surgery. The surgery is much worse in practice than the results suggest. So I checked how representative it was.
231 given survey. 101 responded. 44% of those surveyed is not representative of thousands registered at my surgery. Paper exercise.