SHP - Grove Surgery

Tried ringing continuously over 2 days to speak to doctor, before finally getting through. Had tonsillitis - receptionist recommended paracetamol and a syrup from pharmacist?? Finally after arguing, got an appointment to see doctor. Doctor who was horrified at how severe my white spots in throat were and prescribed antibiotics. Anyone older or more ill would have not persevered to get appointment.
On another occasion had to get a repeat prescription for an acute condition, which had previously presented 5 years ago. Got through to surgery after 4 days of ringing. Got a telephone appointment to speak to doctor in one month's time. Had to bear the pain for over 4 weeks before I got prescription.

Only issue is access to phone call navigator. Overloaded and told message to try again. I do. This is not serving the community. Nor no online apps I too ill to use energy. Very down anxious isolated

The new triage system makes it almost impossible to see a GP The phone system is not fit for purpose. The old system worked perfectly before Covid

Before Covid and through Covid I have always found Receptionist Staff helpful,polite and willing to listen.Never had a problem receiving a call back from the GP's, (The amount of pressure from the last 18months on the NHS Services is unbelievable,they have struggled through and always remained professional throughout).
Yes I have health problems, but remain patience with them, never had a bad experience from any Dr at SHP, Keep up the good work.

It is very difficult to get through on the phone. SHP know this and have not remedied the problem. I have only once got through within 5 minutes. On a few occasions I waited for between 30 and 45 minutes, i.e. between 30 and 49 in the queue but mostly there is a message to say all the lines are full. I cannot understand how this can be the case at 8.02am. The message that the lines are full can be the response am or pm.
I usually give up and resort to going to the surgery to speak to a receptionist. This will not be ideal when winter arrives. On each occasion I have been ill, I have been offered a telephone consultation and on 2 occasions I was invited by a phone call from a doctor to go to the surgery for a face to face appointment without the telephone triage. I say this to illustrate that I had a clear need to see a doctor. I feel very stressed when I have to contact the surgery as it is impossible to rely on the call getting through. I am retired however I do have caring responsibilities and it is not practicable to be trying the surgery number throughout the day. The other problem is being available to answer the ring back from the doctor. Even when I state when I wont be available e.g. driving to another type of appointment, I have received calls at that time. Then there is the worry that the doctor may not ring back later. Most care navigators are polite and I pride myself on being polite to all health staff, however one person was unpleasant calling me 'madam' in a condescending manner and refusing to say when the doctor would call me back apart from 'shortly'. I had to ask several times what shortly meant and finally she relented and said between a particular 2 hour slot which meant I could at least go to the toilet / hang out the washing etc without missing the call.
I have had a particularly bad experience a few months back when I was really ill and although I rang daily to describe my deterioration I was not offered a face to face appointment when any doctor would have immediately seen the signs of serious infection setting in. The outcome was I was admitted to hospital via A&E and had to have an operation.
This has not been my recent experience - perhaps because the doctors can see my recent medical record? However I have been unhappy about the delay in being informed of the outcome of a consultants advice especially when that advice was about a serious condition and included the use of certain medication.
There have been errors re prescriptions. This could occasionally happen in the past (ie pre amalgamation into SHP. However, the difference between then and now is a simple telephone call would have resolved it. Now it is not possible to get a response by phone. I have a number of elderly neighbours and they have all spoken to me about similar problems. Not one of these neighbours uses social media so they have not read or contributed to posts about SHP. Neither had any one of them made a formal complaint. There must be many people like them,
I was speaking to a cardiac nurse on behalf of my husband last week. She said they have exactly the same problem as patients as there is no dedicated line for professionals. I am aware this is also true for pharmacists.
Medical care, once a face to face appointment is allowed, is usually good, but I do find I have to check the doctor has actually read my recent records. It is not a given when they phone.
It is so sad as we used to mostly receive an excellent and consistent service from Grove Road Surgery. It was particularly helpful to receive follow through care from the same GP and on 2 occasions a doctor recognised a health problem by linking various seemingly random symptoms resulting in a good outcome.

Have to go surgery to book appointment. GP’s do not follow up on going issues. Incorrect prescriptions. Terrible communication. Letters from hospitals, consultants never followed up and take weeks/months to be scanned in. No explanation given if you make a complaint. Poor care for the elderly. Quite frankly we feel that we do it have a service anymore and have to resort to going private on a number of occasions.

Wanted to book a smear test with a named nurse rather long drawn out requests by email, helpful but didn't allow me to know who I was booking with which I could previously in the end I cancelled my appointment as I just didn't feel confident in attending

We all understand the issues surrounding Covid however the wait times are totally unacceptable. Generally an hour on hold. One time recently was an hour and 15 minutes when I had to put the phone down due to commitments. Staff don’t call you back to follow things up so if there is action required you have to keep calling to continually chase things (and again hanging on phone for an hour). It often feels like a losing battle, banging your head against a brick wall and I dread to think of how many people are being forgotten about who cannot continually chase things up themselves. Not been impressed either with the doctors response or attitude, of course actually getting to speak to a doctor is almost impossible.

Left in the telephone queue 50 plus waiting absolutely awful

Irratic response times on calls, often exceeds 45 mins to answer, triage process is dangerous - unqualified people making decisions about how to deal with your problem. Call back times are rarely met, meaning you have to put hours aside to wait for a conversation with a doctor. No online appointment options and very limited chance of ever seeing a doctor. It is failing people at every stage and in particular I feel for older patients who are most in need and least likely to understand what on earth is going on. They need investigating urgently.