SHP - Haslucks Green Medical Centre

When trying to find support for my children with ADHD the GP referred them to the wrong service causing further delays in receiving this support.

I can usually get an appointment here when I need one and in general the staff are okay. I did have one bad experience with an inexperienced nurse taking blood. I had never had an issue with this in the past but she kept jabbing me with the needle. I told her she needed to get someone else to do it but she managed in the end. I was not happy and always make sure to avoid her when booking.

It can be quite difficult getting an appointment with the doctor, and you are sent all over the place when you do get one. Seeing all different doctors means there is a lack of continuity of care and that the service lacks a personal feel with no rapport with doctors. I saw a doctor a few months ago who made a referral to the hospital for me. Not having heard anything I queried this with the doctor who told me quite abruptly that they did not have time to chase up referrals. They told me to contact the department directly.

Getting an appointment is very difficult. If you attend the surgery in the morning there can be 15 people in front of you and by the time you get to the receptionist all appointments are gone. When I call to book an appointment I can be anywhere between 40-56th in the queue and by the time the call is answered all the appointments have gone, and I am told to try again the next day. If I am lucky enough to get an appointment I can rarely be seen at my closest surgery and appointments are offered at other surgeries. This is a problem as my wife and I have mobility issues and we do not have our own mode of transport. No consideration is given to this. Why can each surgery no longer have their own booking system for people who live local to that surgery rather than a huge central system that is clearly not working.

My wife has Alzheimer's, I cannot leave her to queue for an appointment, and daily phone calls get negative responses. Referrals do not happen.

I am often sent to other surgeries which is okay for me but isn't great for older people who struggle to travel. There are however a lot of doctors here who provide good care. Despite this I still feel that the overall service was better before it became part of SHP.

The doctors here are good and the building itself is nice. The main issue is that there is no parking.

I have to get 2 buses now just to get a blood test as I can't drive. I'm sure SHP's system works okay if you have a car but for older people it's very difficult.

I have been going here since I was 21, I am 80 now. I liked things better the way they used to be it was much better. Now you call up and are told you are 40th in the list. I recently went in thinking I had an appointment with my GP and it was with a pharmacist. I'm not one to complain but I really wasn't happy with this so told them on the phone. My GP called me back to say he was sorry I felt that way but nothing has changed.

I am scared to phone up for an appointment as I know I am going to be told no. They say to queue up in person at 8:10am but by the time I get there on the bus all of the appointments are gone.