Kingswood Surgery - Ratings and reviews
Reviews
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Review titled Resolved Same day.
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Malcolm Grinter - Posted on 17 April 2024
Had an issue with my ear. Filled the online assessment form online, called within an hour, seen 2 hours later. Checked into appointment and was actually seen early. Actually baffled how quick it was all done!
Visited April 2024
Kingswood Surgery has not yet replied.
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Review titled Excellent experience
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Ben - Posted on 12 April 2024
Normally dread having to call the GP, sitting in a queue at 7.30am is never appealing. This service removes all of those worries. Received a call back within 4 hours from a paramedic, who triaged me over the phone. The streamlined process allowed them to correctly categorise my symptoms as non urgent, and booked me in accordingly, I’d imagine allowing them to prioritise more serious cases. Fantastic & gives me faith in being able to get an appointment moving forwards.
Visited April 2024
Kingswood Surgery has not yet replied.
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Review titled Very efficient
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Charles Brock - Posted on 29 April 2024
Use of Anima and Receptionists as gate keepers is working brilliantly at this practice. When needed to be seen urgently, it was done the same day. When not so urgent it was still within 10 days. Excellent service!
Visited April 2024
Kingswood Surgery has not yet replied.
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Review titled A great practice because of wonderful staff
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 29 November 2023
I contacted the surgery at 8am today and was advised, by the receptionist, to complete and email a review form stating the reasons for requesting to speak to a doctor. I did this and received a reply with an hour. The doctor had clearly understood my symptoms and listened, carefully, whilst I further explained their effect. I am now, at 11 o'clock, going to collect my prescription - having first checked that the Pharmacy have received instructions from the surgery. The doctor also gave me a code to apply, at the pharmacy, if I need further treatment. A totally professional, caring and competent response from my surgery and pharmacy. Thank you
Visited November 2023
Kingswood Surgery has not yet replied.
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Review titled Very unhelpful receptionists
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 22 November 2023
I called to speak to the receptionist for an emergency repeat prescription, needed this to stop excess loss of blood during my period, I had used this for a while and it was on the system, I had only recently run out and was always anaemic and waiting for a surgery. The lady at the reception asked what happened to the last one I was given, I informed her that my surgery the month prior was cancelled on other health grounds and the surgeon had encouraged I optimise the use of the medication to encourage coagulation. she became visibly upset, asked why I would not compete the eConsult to which I apologised and explained that I was worried due to urgency, and she became outrightly contemptuous, she appeared to absolutely hate her job and hated speaking to me on the phone which was absolutely troubling. I struggled to keep myself from crying, but I felt really uncomfortable. She later put my request prescription through, she hung up on me before I could finish so I later called to speak to the manager, after many attempts of us missing each other’s calls, the manager left a voice message to say she had listened to the voice call and could tell the receptionist was a bit frustrated but maybe not at me and wanted to know how I intend to move the issue forward. When people are unwell or going through difficult times like we all do, I think it's really important we understand and not make things worse for them and whilst there is no way of telling who is going through what, a patient who phones into a gp practice needs nothing but help with their problems and not finish a call in tears or be made to feel even more helpless. That said, I have met brilliant receptionists at the same GP and the doctors are absolutely amazing in my view.
Visited July 2023
Review titled Kingswood Surgery
Replied on 29 November 2023
Dear Patient, Thank you for your comments. Kingswood Surgery accepts all comments and criticisms made about our performance in a positive light, acting upon them to learn and improve our service provision, where we think it is needed. I am sorry that you felt that you had such a bad experience when you phoned in to us with a repeat prescription request. I did review the telephone conversation between yourself and the receptionist. Following this, I then attempted to contact you and, as you say, you attempted to return my call several times over. My decision to leave you a message and the question which I left with you was intended to give you the opportunity of deciding whether you wished to simply have a talk with me over the telephone, or come in to have a face-to-face meeting, as some patients prefer to do. It was certainly not my intention to sound indifferent or uncaring; so please accept my apologies if that was how it superficially appeared. Even now, I hope that even at this stage, you can contact me to discuss this experience with you, as it is important that your views are properly handled and considered. Finally, I would like to thank you for your final comments. It is always appreciated when a patient offers us praise, even if they have encountered a situation, such as the one which you described. I look forward to receiving your response From the Practice Manager
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Review titled Before Covid practice was ok, not so now
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 29 July 2023
I feel care at the practice was, prior to Covid lockdowns, ok. Not great but passable. Now it is very poor. Phone appointments are hopeless, waiting times terrible. I’m going to try an alternative practice, can’t be any worse. I no longer feel safe.
Visited July 2023
Review titled Kingswood Surgery
Replied on 29 August 2023
Thank you for your comments. We take all comments and feedback from our patients seriously, and use their experience as a means of identifying improvement opportunities for the practice. With around 11,500 patients, the key challenge for us has been to ensure that there is sufficient clinical capacity to support our patient population. This has difficult as, over the course of the past few years, COVID and the initial immunisation effort impacted the number of GPs which we were able to field. In the immediate aftermath, we have lost GP’s due to long-term sickness and stress-related issues. Without immediate replacements this reduced the total number of sessions which we could offer. Whilst our capacity reduced; in common with other practices, we faced increased patient demand to the point where we were running a separate triage list of upwards of seventy patient requests per day, alongside the scheduled ‘official’ list of appointments. This was in our view neither sustainable, nor safe. In consequence, the decision was taken in November last year to temporarily close our books to all but a very few new patients, in order to allow us time to recover and build up capacity. Through the use of locums and recruitment of Paramedic Practitioners, as well as the recent return to work of one GP and recruitment of another new GP, we have turned a corner. As a result of our increased capacity, we expect to begin to see reductions in the appointment waiting time for our patients. Consequently, we reopened our books to new patients in June 2023. However, the practice is not just about our front line clinical staff. There has also been a high turnover with our reception team who in the face of unrealistic expectations and demands, have at times faced personal abuse and physical threats from our patients. Understandably, this was not the role which they signed up for and as a result we have lost some very committed staff, all of whom were valued members of the practice. Whilst it takes many years to train our clinical teams, it can take up to 18 months of “on the job” training for our reception team to become fully effective. Therefore their losses are keenly felt. The past three years have been a very challenging time for everyone: patients and staff alike. Yet, despite the pressures and criticism which we have faced, we remain committed to improving our service and responsiveness to our patients’ needs. Therefore we appreciate and understand the concerns that you have raised here and I would like to assure you that we are working hard to address these matters. However, whilst our responses appear to be taking us in the right direction, we still have room to improve. As a practice we are concerned about the individual experience of our patients. Our website offers ways in which you can share them with us and includes contacting the Practice Manager. Therefore, I would invite you to contact me, should you wish to discuss your concerns in person.
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Review titled Great Doctor
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 01 November 2023
My new named doctor has been wonderful over the past few months. She listened to the problems I had been having and immediately spotted something wrong. After an emergency operation my doctor checked on me whilst I was in hospital and continued to check on me when I arrived home. I find her caring and supportive - she is exactly what a good doctor should be.
Visited July 2023
Kingswood Surgery has not yet replied.
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Review titled Excellent Practice
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Mary Chamberlain - Posted on 04 August 2023
We have been patients at Kingswood for 48 years & have always been very happy with the excellent service received. Recently I woke feeling unwell, called the surgery at 08.30, & told I would be contacted that morning. At 09.45 a Paramedic working in the surgery called me & after a conversation invited me to attend the surgery at 12 noon to see a doctor. This I duly did & the problem was resolved. I consider myself fortunate to be a patient at this surgery.
Visited July 2023
Kingswood Surgery has not yet replied.
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Review titled Not such a great practice since pandemic & extra housing.
Rated 3 stars out of 5
by Joan Boenke - Posted on 29 May 2023
Pleased to say that if considered urgent, I've been seen in 24 hrs. Happy with telephone appts but not with a 'call back' that day, which meant I couldn't leave home for any reason for 8 hours. Medical attention always good. Used to have appt within a week but now too long a wait. Probably aggravated by all GPs working part time, I believe. All staff friendly & helpful.
Visited May 2023
Review titled Kingswood Surgery
Replied on 15 August 2023
Dear Joan Boenke, On behalf of Kingswood Surgery, I would like to take this opportunity for your comments. We equally welcome all comments and criticisms from our patients in order to learn from their experiences. I was pleased to learn that generally we are getting most things right for you. However, whilst I understand your recent experience with our call-back was not as positive, I feel that some explanation is needed. For over a year we have been receiving high levels of calls for “on-the-day” appointments from our patients, who have been disappointed to find that there have been effectively no appointments for patients who need to see a doctor. Whilst we have always offered a triage system, where patients who were deemed to have a medical need to speak to a GP were put on a list for a callback, since the pandemic has ended this demand has continued to grow. Sometimes these lists amount to over seventy extra appointments per day, in addition to the pre-booked appointments. These call-backs have to be made around the pre-booked appointments for that day. In order to do this, the calls are made by the AM or PM duty GP, therefore the patient will get a call either in the morning or afternoon. Our GPs make two attempts to call each patient, in order to minimise the risk of that call-back being missed. Regrettably, we have to ask patients to be understanding and make themselves available. We know that this is a lot to ask, but we do ask for your help, because we are trying to ensure that all patients are assessed by a clinician on the day. Whilst I appreciate your observation that our GPs work part time, our challenges have been to retain staff and replace those lost to sickness and resignations following the pressures of the past few years. However, we feel that we are beginning to turn a corner, with increased capacity from recent appointments and will continue to work towards achieving a sustainable provision of service. Thank you for your feedback.
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Review titled Great Practice
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Deborah Millar - Posted on 05 January 2023
Twice recently I have needed an appt. The first I requested by e-consult & a GP contacted me that day by tel, arranged a blood test within days and a follow-up face-to-face appointment the next week. I was amazed, knowing full well how hard appointments are to make like that, being a GP receptionist myself! The second time I rang in after a bank holiday asking for a telephone appointment and a paramedic rang me back within the hour. I have been a patient at Kingswood nearly all my life and have always been grateful to be one. Thank you.
Visited January 2023
Review titled Kingswood Surgery
Replied on 16 January 2023
On behalf of everyone here at Kingswood, I would like to thank you for your kind words. Our team are dedicated to support our community of patients and to receive your commendation, tells us that we are doing something right. It will do much to raise our team’s spirits. Of course, we don’t always get things right all of the time; we are only human, after all. But we will always listen to what our patients tell us, in order to improve our delivery of service. Once again, thank you.