SHP - Monkspath Surgery

I telephoned (number 42 in the queue) explaining that I had excruciating stomach pains I was given a telephone appointment for two days ahead........the doctor that telephone was very helpful but how can they diagnose my symptoms over the phone!!!!! ...also my husband is highly vulnerable but no indicattion as to when he will recieve covid19 vaccination!!!!!!

I had to contact the practice as an emergency, as usual getting through on the telephone was a nightmare then your put through to another queue. Was asked best number to get back to me on, I said mobile. Then someone phones me back on landline, lucky I was in. This is just incompetency on behalf of whoever asked me.
Once the GP phoned me back, he was very good and very effective. Seems to me the problem is in contacting the practice. They need more staff answering calls and processing patients queries. Whole contact system is a joke. I’ve worked in nhs for 40 years and this would never have been acceptable / allowed in our department.

Impossible to get through, difficult to get appointments, feel like a number with very little real care.

After a 1 hour 15min wait on the morning of 12th November 2020 my wife was told no appointment was available, next one would be monday 16th and only by telephone ...utter disgrace.

The website is difficult to navigate and unreliable - eg no results found when searching for symptoms. Online consult form completed twice with no response.

You end up waiting in two queues on the phone and the wait was well over an hour just to book an appointment. This undoubtedly forces people directly to A& E if they have any issues which is totally unnecessary.

This surgery is always very good and the staff are great BUT , I called the week before the October half term to arrange a well overdue blood test . I called the number one hour to get through. I explained my problem and then I was put into another queue. I was caller number 47 .It took another one hour to get through . I was then offered a call for 5 days later . Then a trainee GP called me back. She was very helpful but it was a very long time indeed . I am a school teacher and I have worked in school throughout the year . This was my day off and a large part of it was spent on the phone to the practice.
So no it's not good enough, but as I say the staff are very good . I think they merged practices without increasing staff to answer the phone maybe?

Can't get through on phone or end up being on average caller number 55 or 33 etc. Do prescription on line go to pharmacy 5 days later & they have not received it! 3 times in a row now! Have to go back to surgery to sort each time you get we haven't got it WELL THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE SYSTEM THEN. As it shows my end. Everything takes to long used to be OK until they all got together creating SHP! PLEASE DISBAND AND PUT IT BACK AS WAS, SHP DOES NOT WORK.
Went to surgery yesterday to ask where my prescription is just 1 girl there doing everything Ridiculous! I gave 1 star it should be none.

Waiting time to get through is just unacceptable- up to an hour on last 3 calls. No issue with medical help when through but this is a major barrier and needs fixing. So pleased my calls weren’t urgent and I’m able to hold on so long, others won’t be in same position. First line response critical - and the feedback/complaints option on the shp website doesn’t work, assume done purposely?

This is an email I sent to SHP. So far no response, not even an acknowledgement beyond and automated reply.

On Wednesday, 4 November 2020, admin.shp@nhs.net wrote:

To SHP Leadership

I would like to complain about the difficulty I am having with what should be a straightforward procedure.
I h ave recently been diagnosed with MND and require blood tests once a month. There have been a number of issues :

1. When I first tried to arrange a blood test via SHP I was told you couldn’t do them and they needed to be arranged through the hospital. I had to get my Specialist Nurse involved despite SHP having all of the information regarding the shared care plan. I then had to phone SHP again and was finally successful in booking an appointment. This is not straightforward as you know. Firstly I have to phone the call centre, wait in a queue for 40 minutes only to be transferred to another “navigation” queue. Another 40 minute wait.

2. I assumed that as I need these test monthly I would be able to book my next appointment when I had my bloods taken. Apparently not. The nurse was very apologetic but explained that she could only book 3 weeks in advance! I would have to go via the call centre each time.

3. I therefore decided to use the secure form request on the web site. I filled in the details and today received a text message from Dr Simon Green with a link to a blood test form. It explained that you have a phlebotomy clinic at Monkspath ( I was aware of that) and to contact reception ! No contact details were provided and so it was back to the call centre queue. The woman who took my call had no idea why I had been asked to contact reception and said it was a “miss communication”. She then transferred me to navigation. Another queue and finally I can book an appointment.

I do not think it unreasonable for me to be able to book repeat appointments without the need to go through this lengthy and frustrating process each time. All I would like to do is when I have a blood test to be booked in for my next appointment in 4 or 5 weeks time. Instead I am faced with a ridiculous system which requires me to wait in 2 queues each time.

Please can you look at what can be done to bring about an improvement. Your answer service makes reference to callers getting aggressive with staff. While I agree this is not acceptable it suggests very strongly that there are serious problems at SHP which need to be addressed.

Regards

Antony Lloyd