Parklands Medical Practice - Ratings and reviews
Reviews
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Review titled Great fast service
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Paul Dignam - Posted on 22 April 2024
Excellent service, just frustrating that you add a note to your prescription asking for an item you have been needing for a while, to just not get a message saying it won't be prescribed, even though it is needed, only then for me to have to ring through to ask for a appointment to get the prescription. Very frustrating.
Visited April 2024
Review titled Parklands Medical Practice
Replied on 29 April 2024
Thank you for your positive feedback, prescribing is a complicated area and we try very hard to put any medication that is safe to do so onto a “repeat” arrangement to make it as easy as possible for patients, and, to be fair, our teams, to get the medications they need, when they need them, as quickly as we safely can arrange. There are a number of medications where it is not safe to leave them fully accessible without a consultation to understand the patients situation at the time of issue. It may be something very straight forward such as having a blood test to make sure that a patient isn’t experiencing silent side effects; it might be that the guidelines we work under are clear about medications being only available for a certain amount of time before a different plan is needed (for example nutritional products) or it might be the nature of the medication itself having serious issues that need to be balanced carefully, for example steroids or certain pain medications. Please contact us directly if you would like a conversation specific to your particular situation, but I’m very glad that you found our service quick, even if you did find the necessary processes frustrating - thank you for the 5 stars! Kind regards, Fiona Purdie Business Manager
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Review titled Constant mistakes and excuses
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Katie mortimer - Posted on 12 April 2024
I’ve tried to hard to be lenient with this practice and given them so many chances, but there is always an issue! 5 days ago I sent them a document for my prescription, chased it up and was told pharmacist would be looking at it Friday. Friday has come and no contact, now they’re closed. I’m left without my medication again. The practice is so poorly run and the staff have no direction provided my management. Their processes are completely wrong and inappropriate time frames for things to be done. If it wasn’t so convenient to be inbetween my home and work i would 100% leave. The nurses are lovely and I’ve only had positive experiences with a couple of the GPs. The excuse of lack of staff etc is appalling. Perhaps if their staff were lead more efficiently and supported people wouldn’t be quitting.
Visited April 2024
Parklands Medical Practice has not yet replied.
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Review titled Appointment s
Rated 1 star out of 5
by David Deegan - Posted on 15 July 2023
Had a phone call from these people telling me to make an appointment regards a blood test I had recently. I asked them to make an appointment for me while I was on the phone to them . At the moment . They said they could not do that . I had to ring the surgery .why not make an appointment there and then . . Or ring me up to tell me to attend an appointment. . I had a major cancer operation in 2018 . . This phone call left me worried and anxious as you can imagine . . . Ii then rand the surgery in the afternoon to make an appointment as they had requested. Ii was told then that I had to ring the following Monday . This would have left me worrying all over the weekend . . Why they could not make me the appointment that they told me to make is beyond understanding . . . I have been on that phone to parkland practice . One time for 2 hours 5 mins waiting to get an answer . . Another time 1 hour 45 . Both times I have ran out of patience ond not carried on with the call . . I am still under the care of the oncology nurses . And still visiting them on a six monthly appointment . . . Why couldn't the parklands staff ring me to tell me I have got an appointment with them . Instead of ringing me to tell me to make an appointment . . . On their web site. The tell you about their difficulties and struggles to see people . And they fot tolerate bad manners and abuse . . Well what about treating you patient s the same way . . We do not ring this surgery to ask or beg for attention. For no reason . Mostly we ring because we are unwell and not in a mood to be treat like imbociles or scroungers looking for sympathy. . We need at the time help and respect . . As it is I have been left wondering what is wrong with me after they rang me to tell me I had to make an appointment with them to see a doctor ,regard my recent blood test at parkland surgery . Buttershaw lane . . And please remember. As poorly people , we also expect the same respect and treatment as you expect from patients. . Because this surgery rating must be one of the lowest in Bradford . And that is not the patients fault . . So maybe you should overall your system to work , because it is not working at this time . . You cannot expect people to wait on you phone for 1 to two hours at a time to make an appointment that you told us we needed . . .
Visited July 2023
Review titled Parklands Medical Practice
Replied on 27 July 2023
Dear Mr Deegan, Firstly, thank you for adding your name – I’m glad we have had a chance to resolve your particular situation – please let me know if there is any remaining issue. We are aware that a very new receptionist made these phone calls and clearly didn’t quite understand the process we have in these cases. Blood tests are requested for a number of reasons, but we get a significant number of results each week and while we understand how important it is for patients to be informed of their results in a timely fashion, we need to prioritise those with immediate medical needs. If we get an abnormal blood result that we need to talk to a patient about but isn’t time critical we will usually text or write out and ask the patient to contact us at their convenience. If there is something unexpected, concerning or maybe needs further action (for example, we might need to repeat a test) then we will ring and we will book the patient in at that point rather than request them to contact us again. As a result of these 2 very similar issues we have spoken to our new staff to make sure they understand how stressful it is to be told there is an issue and then not be able to book a time to talk to someone about the next steps. I am hopeful this won’t happen again, grateful that you let me know in such good time and we were able to resolve the issue quickly. I’m very sorry that this was your experience. Kind regards, Fiona Purdie Business Manager
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Review titled The elusive appointment
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Michael Jones - Posted on 14 July 2023
My mother is 90 years old. The practice rang her on 13 July asking her to make an appointment to discuss some blood results . My mother asked if they could make the appointment not but was told to ring at 8am the next day despite her age. She started ringing at 8am and on 2 occasions was cut off when she was number 3 in the queue despite the practice previously saying this,does not happen. She rang throughout the day and finally spoke to someone at 3pm, 7 hours after she started ringing only to be told she could not have an appointment but she may get one online! As a 90 year old her internet skills are not excellent so I tried only to be advised there were none. Surely anyone with an ounce of sense and compassion would deal with a 90 year old differently. My mother feels abandoned by this practice. We are now in a position of being told there is,something wrong with the blood results but cannot get an appointment to find out why. A formal complaint may follow.
Visited July 2023
Review titled Parklands Medical Practice
Replied on 27 July 2023
Dear Mr Jones, Firstly, thank you for adding your name – I’m glad we have had a chance to resolve your particular situation – please let me know if there is any remaining issue. We are aware that a very new receptionist made these phone calls and clearly didn’t quite understand the process we have in these cases. Blood tests are requested for a number of reasons, but we get a significant number of results each week and while we understand how important it is for patients to be informed of their results in a timely fashion, we need to prioritise those with immediate medical needs. If we get an abnormal blood result that we need to talk to a patient about but isn’t time critical we will usually text or write out and ask the patient to contact us at their convenience. If there is something unexpected, concerning or maybe needs further action (for example, we might need to repeat a test) then we will ring and we will book the patient in at that point rather than request them to contact us again. As a result of these 2 very similar issues we have spoken to our new staff to make sure they understand how stressful it is to be told there is an issue and then not be able to book a time to talk to someone about the next steps. I am hopeful this won’t happen again, grateful that you let me know in such good time and we were able to resolve the issue quickly. I’m very sorry that this was your experience. Kind regards, Fiona Purdie Business Manager
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Review titled Terrible service
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Sebastian Dopierala - Posted on 28 April 2023
You hold on a line for an ages. GP job is to see a patient and have face to face conversation not a useless phone consultation or send a picture. This isn't "pandemic" time. I can't see our kids medical history online even if they are added to his account. We can't see our history form previous medical practices as well. When we have an appointment for us or kids in hospital, dentist etc. we can't say what illness was it and when. I tried to book an appointment for my wife for her scan results and they said this is available Thursday only. GP must explain patient test results every day not Thursday only. This medical practice is the worst practice what we used.
Visited April 2023
Review titled Parklands Medical Practice
Replied on 05 May 2023
Thank you for taking the time to feedback to us. I apologise for the delays we have been seeing on the phones – as I’m sure you are aware we have been advising patients of the ongoing situation but there is, in reality very little we can do – if 15% of our patient list all want to speak to us on the same day then all we can do is our best to work through that queue, understand what it is that people need to talk to us about and look at realistic alternatives to phoning if possible. All we can do is deal with each request as efficiently and appropriately as we can, which, at the moment, with demand all over the country far out stripping the availability of doctors, nurses, paramedics, HCA’s, physios and all the other clinical staff we have working at the practice and our wider network, means significant wait time on the phone. We simply can’t refuse to deal with one person because other people are waiting – that would not be fair or safe. I agree we are no longer in the immediate reality of a pandemic, but we are still dealing with the results of how we all had to work and live over that time. It was regularly on the national news about operations and outpatient appointments being cancelled due to staff being pulled out to deal with COVID patients. Those patients have not gone and we are seeing them reaching out to their GP practice to support them while they wait – which is completely understandable – but does not help the situation either in terms of you being able to get through or being able to see the clinician of your choice at the ideal time. While I understand it isn’t your preference many patients have appreciated the use of phone appointments as it gives them greater flexibility over when they can have that conversation with the doctor or nurse. However, we do all have to be realistic – if you strongly prefer to be seen face to face that means the person you are seeing also needs to be at a specific location at a specific time. Often staff can work extra from home, or ring from the other surgery at time that suits when the location may not. I’m not sure from your comments, and it is difficult to track historic availability after the event, whether the Thursday appointment you were offered was the only appointment available at the time, or rather the earliest. We have a protocol for test results based on clinical priority. It can take a few days for a non-urgent result to be addressed but we do understand for individuals (and we are all patients too) our sense of urgency will inevitably be greater than the practice which is trying to balance the health needs of over 10000 people. I apologise but I do not have the space to be able to reply about the online access issues here. I hope this goes someway to addressing your concerns but please contact the surgery directly (either Ian Taylor, Patient Services Manager or in his absence me) if you need any further information or assistance. Kind regards, Fiona Purdie Business Manager
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Review titled Impossible to get an appointment
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 23 March 2023
Today I spent 43 minutes on the phone and was then cut off when I became number 2 in the queue. This happened yesterday as well. It is impossible to get through let alone get an appointment. Covid restrictions finished a year ago yet this practice neither wants to see anyone or speak to anyone.
Visited March 2023
Review titled Parklands Medical Practice
Replied on 24 March 2023
Thank you for taking the time to feedback – I’m very sorry that you have had a frustrating experience. I can assure you we are seeing and speaking to more people than we ever have although I do understand how busy the phones are now. On Tuesday the phone system had to deal with 3600 calls ( 2500 were incoming). We have 4 receptionists on at any time so there will inevitably be queues to get through much as I might wish it otherwise. Our contract suggests we should be providing around 700 appointments per week for our list of 10075 people – in the last 5 working days we saw and spoke to 1795 patients. As many of our colleagues are pointing out - this is unsustainable. But I appreciate that this does not make your experience any better. In practical terms please be aware that some mobile phone contracts have cut offs built into their programming so calls can’t be left on hold for very expensive, very long phone calls – some arrangements are for 30, 45 or 60 minutes before cut off. We have checked our phone system with the provider on several occasions and have been repeatedly told there isn’t an issue at our end. It may be worth talking to your phone provider if you were calling from a mobile phone. There are some of our appointments available up to a week in advance which are available to book online from our website www.parklands.co.uk. Alternatively, please use the e-consult system – any request for contact is reviewed by our triage team the working day after it arrives and prioritised with consideration to the urgency of the other patient requests we have received. If for any reason the technology is a struggle for you our reception team are happy to help you submit the request – we have tablets at both sites if you don’t own a smart phone, or they are happy to show you on your own phone if you would prefer how to be shown how to do it yourself. The phones do get slightly quieter towards the end of the day so it may be easier to arrange a suitable time to come in and get that help – clearly first thing in the morning when the phone demand is at its busiest would not be a practical solution and create longer waits for other patients. While we do appreciate that it feels like everything should be back to normal now, COVID has created backlogs in treatment plans that impact on peoples ongoing health and wellbeing as well as significant numbers of people with long COVID issues. We are seeing far more people struggling with their mental health for a variety of reasons and we’ve had a doctor off sick just this week with COVID – so it isn’t completely over for us, again, much as we all might want that to be the case. I hope this goes someway to answering your concerns but please contact the surgery directly (either Ian Taylor, Patient Services Manager or in his absence me) if you need any further information or assistance. Kind regards, Fiona Purdie Business Manager
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Review titled Receptionist
Rated 3 stars out of 5
by Dinah Emanuel - Posted on 02 February 2023
2nd feb 2023 i went to chemist to pick prescription up one item missing so i went into surgery to explain they said it would be monday now then i got a missed call from the practice so i tried to return i was 5th in queue and got down to 2nd in queue then phone constantly rung no one picked up so i drove to the practice with the phone still ringing i asked why no one answering phone they said didn't know what happened i explained returning call what was it about receptionist said it was to do with my dermatology appointment and said would print off the appointment for me when she came back i said why have i got appointment with dermatology she explained she was looking at wrong patient data then said my prescription ready monday. Please sort out your staffing issues if the staff can't be bothered to answer phone and look at wrong patient data lots of people without jobs . It makes the surgery look incompetent.
Visited February 2023
Review titled Parklands Medical Practice
Replied on 24 February 2023
Dear Dinah, firstly thank you for taking the time to feedback regarding your experience. Obviously, I can’t comment here regarding your specific situation without your explicit consent, but I am aware you have also been in direct contact with the practice which I am glad about. A few general points that I hope might be useful to others reading these comments. Our telephones: we have recently upgraded our telephone systems so we now for the first time have a real handle on that area of work, just at the time when, as an entire sector, we are seeing our demand hit all-time highs. For us specifically, we have never seen phone traffic at the level it currently is – we know we have around twice the number of calls on a Monday morning than we have at any other time in the week. We do track our calls on a Monday and the last week in January was our record – 2700 calls in the day of which we were able to answer around 1300. Which I fully accept is frustrating for everyone, and absolutely does lead to long wait times. We have 4 receptionists on throughout the day, who are responsible for answering the phone, but that is not their only job. As you mention, they have to see to the patients that present at the front desk and also support the clinical teams when they are in clinic. It would be lovely to be in a position to recruit more people to help out, but that would only be possible by having less clinical hours, which doesn’t feel like the right priority. So, the unfortunate truth is that at times our reception team are under tremendous pressure and inevitably mistakes get made, as seems to have happened here. I’m glad it was spotted at the time, and I hope apologies made, and your initial issue resolved. I have checked which staff members were involved and one of them is very new, so hopefully this was, at least, a good learning experience for her. I do appreciate this might not be the response you expect. I can make one very sincere promise that all of our team are doing the very best they can while working under the most pressure and demand for our services that I have seen in the 22 years I have worked at this practice. I personally apologise that a mistake was made, and I assure you that the staff concerned have been made aware of the issue and I hope the same mistake won't be made again. Again, thank you for taking the time to feedback. Fiona Purdie Business Manager
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Review titled Not fit for purpose
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 31 January 2023
Been trying for 4days to get an appointment. Left for Upto 2 hours on phone . . .. then either cut off or ran out of patience, no patience when you are ill .. I was a cancer patient and put back into their care once I had recovered . . They have given me one appointment after my release from hospital ..and never bothered again . Totally ignored . . They say they want more patients. They can't even look after the ones they have . . . Go to the surgery . It is always empty. I will be leaving these nonentities at the earliest I can . Enough is enough ..my wife's has a different surgery that is totally different . Where care is valued not ignored .
Visited January 2023
Review titled Parklands Medical Practice
Replied on 31 January 2023
Thank you for taking the time to feedback to us – I’m very sorry that you have had a difficult experience. Firstly, if I could just correct a misunderstanding – we are not trying to actively recruit more patients, however, we are unable to close our list (ie refuse to register any new patients) without agreement from NHS England – in fact our list size has dropped over the past year from 10500 to 10075 as of yesterday. We are very aware of the access issues and the current levels of demand that are being seen locally and nationally – our local medical committee has asked us to report to them on a weekly basis about the workload pressures that are being seen right across Bradford and the rest of Yorkshire so I am also well aware that we are not alone with this pressure. It’s very difficult to answer specific issues, such as follow up after cancer recovery, when you are posting anonymously and publicly so I can only provide general comments to the points that you have raised. Whenever someone is discharged back to primary care from any secondary care department then we take our instructions from that discharge communication, however, in general, if regular follow up is required then that should be arranged and completed within the secondary care department. There can be some ongoing medication that needs to be set up which might account for the follow up appointment you mention but we really would not expect there to be a regular programme of follow up in practice without a formal “shared care” arrangement being set up and in the very large part they tend to be about regular blood tests with a plan to refer back in if the results come back as abnormal. This would not be a usual ongoing issue for cancer patients. But without being able to look at your specific situation I am not able to see if there has been a particular problem I need to look at. We work quite hard to try and reduce the groups of patients sitting together in the waiting room, we ae still telephoning the vast majority of our patients in the first instance but as of last week we saw around 80% of our total appointments face to face, although we recognise that for our doctors that may only be for as long as the appropriate examination needed takes. While a lot of our patients do strongly prefer to be seen face to face regardless of whether that is strictly speaking necessary there are also those who prefer the flexibility that telephone, video and e-consultations allow. So please don’t judge how busy we are by how many patients are sitting in the waiting room! I hope this goes someway to answering your concerns but please contact the surgery directly (either Ian Taylor, Patient Services Manager or in his absence me) if you need any further information or assistance. Kind regards, Fiona Purdie Business Manager
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Review titled Terrible service
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 30 January 2023
I have now been on the phone for 40 minutes and still it’s just ringing.. this is the 3rd time I’ve tried today. I am ringing for a disabled person who’s tried ringing himself 2 times and he ended up using all his phone credit .. he places a medication request in last week and still has not received it .. This surgery is really going down hill.. I have been coming to this doctors since I was 8 years old (52) years in total. And have never had the amount trouble getting through on the phone
Visited January 2023
Review titled Parklands Medical Practice
Replied on 31 January 2023
Firstly thank you for taking the time to feedback, I’m so sorry that you are struggling to get through on the phone, we are aware that the pressures on the phone system are significant at the moment (I’ve been doing this job for 21 years and I have never seen it so busy) and we are trying our very best to deal with the patient contacts that we are getting – yesterday we had over 1000 incoming calls and only 83 were not able to be answered, although I do not doubt there were significant waits. There was also a problem with the econsult technology that we are currently looking into, that created a bit of a bottle neck – but we usually see between 180 and 250 econsults per week and as you would expect a disproportionate number land on a Monday, and if there are problems with the system then we see more phone traffic as a result. We are trying to work out the processes to have a straightforward email for the reception team for nonclinical queries to save patients needing to log onto the econsult system and again hopefully relieve the pressures on the phone, but the simple fact at the moment is that the need and demand for our services far outstrips the availability of resource that we have, as is the case across the country and across the NHS as a whole – I really wish it wasn’t the case. We are trying to recruit to fill our 2 vacancies but there simply aren’t enough qualified GP’s out there who are prepared to work in a traditional practice based role. I hope this goes someway to answering your concerns but please contact the surgery directly (either Ian Taylor, Patient Services Manager or in his absence me) if you need any further information or assistance. Kind regards, Fiona Purdie Business Manager
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Review titled Rude staff
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 11 October 2022
I went to register my new born baby. Nobody knew the protocol. One person told me I just needed to show the birth certificate, the other told me I need to fill out a full registration form. I took it home and completed it (baring in mind I had to bring my baby out which is a struggle as I’m a new mum) when I brought it back the third lady said I didn’t need to fill one out and would just shred it. Whilst I was speaking to the receptionist at the front I heard the receptionist in the back say ‘oh god not another one’. I am totally disgusted. The staff need training on how things work so patients arnt getting conflicting messages. It costs nothing to be nice and i will refuse to deal with that particular receptionist if I encounter her again
Visited October 2022
Review titled Parklands Medical Practice
Replied on 31 January 2023
Firstly, thank you for taking the time to feedback, I’m so sorry that you had a difficult experience, I agree entirely it costs nothing to be nice. The reception role is a surprisingly complicated one – there are a lot of very specific processes that need to be followed and there are frequent changes to those processes to be managed. When recruiting we always say it will take 18 months to feel competent, and probably another few months after that to feel confident in what you are doing. Like many other workplaces we lost staff over the pandemic for a number of reasons, and we have 3 experienced receptionists who are ready for their next role that we are having to ask to wait a while as our current reception team is really quite inexperienced (although I believe that all of them are doing very well considering how long they have been in post). As it stands we have at least one vacancy, and out of the 9 current receptionists, 3 have less than a year’s total experience and 1 other, who has plenty of experience at another surgery, has also been with us less than a year. However, that is no excuse for passing unhelpful comments that can be heard by patients and I will absolutely address that with the full team at the next team meeting. I do hope you have now managed to get your baby registered and things are a little more settled for you – but if that is not the case then please contact the surgery directly (either Ian Taylor, Patient Services Manager or in his absence me) if you need any further information or assistance. Kind regards, Fiona Purdie Business Manager