Willow Tree Family Doctors - Ratings and reviews
Reviews
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Review titled Repeat prescription
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 27 January 2024
0 stars. My mom submitted her repeat prescription on a Monday and waited 48 hours to collect it, but nothing was available. She went again the next day, and still, there was nothing. On Friday morning, she visited the practice and was told by the receptionist that her prescription would be signed off later in the day. On Saturday morning, she went to collect it, but there was still nothing. It was a frustrating experience, and she eventually ran out of medication. The pharmacy had to provide a two-week supply. This situation has occurred before.
Visited January 2024
Review titled Willow Tree Family Doctors
Replied on 29 January 2024
Dear Anonymous, I am sorry your mother experienced a problem with her prescription. If you'd like to contact us we can look into it and explain what happened but an anonymous comment does not allow us to do that. We can get up to a couple of hundred prescription requests each day and handling them can be very complex with stringent safety checks needed on each. There can be many reasons for delays such as patients not responding to invitations for their routine checks, expired authorisations, changes made by the hospital and so on. We have a team of clinical pharmacists as well as the doctors carrying our this activities. Ordering is always best done electronically using the NHS or Patient app that comes straight into the electronic patient record system and any requests that come in differently or via the chemist can take longer. There are also significant medicine shortages so some items need replacing. So, knowing how you ordered and what was being requested and following that through is the only way we can sensibly understand your problem. If anyone has a delay to their prescription they should raise this and we can always issue an emergency supply to keep them going. The chemist also has the ability, as in this case, to issue an emergency supply. Even 111 can arrange an emergency supply if at the weekend when we are closed. So, no patient should ever run out of their medicines. Please get in touch and we can look into it.
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Review titled Getting from bad to worse, especially with patches
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 08 June 2023
There was a time when I could pickup the phone and call to get an appointment ( with a bit of difficulty admittedly ) or walk in the surgery early in the morning as they opened and get an appointment either for the morning session or the afternoon session, then covid 19 came and gave all of the doctors at the surgery a perfect excuse to no longer engage with patients in person or unnecessarily. It felt like they deliberately did everything within their powers to not see patients, making it extremely difficult as possible. One of those obstacles that disenfranchises, marginalises and discriminates against patients with poor memory and a lack of experience, skills and knowledge of using a smartphone and computer is the new mandated patches system that everyone at the surgery is ramming down people's throats. I vehemently despise this system because it delays and restricts me getting access to treatment and services. I feel so frustrated, embarrassed and lost for not remembering how to log in and when I do, it takes me ages, but nobody at the practice cares. The front desk staff are all young and clued up on technology, but what about patients like me that have to suffer in silence and embarrassment .I strongly suggest that that there is a hybrid system that accommodates both the younger patients with i.t. and smartphone and pc skills as well as the older patients whose easiest access to getting an appointment to see a gp is by having the choices of making an appointment by telephone ( if they ever answer the phone in the mornings) or by walking in the surgery in person. It is such a ridiculous state of affairs at the moment, that one morning I lined up in the queue ( first in line ) and when I walked up to the receptionist at the desk and said that I would like to make an appointment, I was told that it could not be done. I was told to telephone the surgery, so I took out my old mobile phone while standing in front of her and dialled the Surgery. the number rang and nobody was answering and she was the only person on the reception desk. She saw what was happening and eventually said that I had to register with patches, so I stood in front of her and tried to do it. Even with her help it took us about 20 minutes to setup, but now I am at home and cant remember my password, so after 3 incorrect passwords, I have to wait for 3 minutes to try again, just to add insult to injury to someone in pain and who cant remember their password. please bring back the old system or have a hybrid system .patches on it's on doesn't cater adequately or fairly for all patients ( I tried to write the last sentence in capital letters, but this website wouldn't allow me, including the use of pc and gp in capitals , oh dear ) , what next ?
Visited June 2023
Review titled Willow Tree Family Doctors
Replied on 12 June 2023
Dear Anonymous, Thanks for your comments. The global pandemic killed around 225,000 in the UK, disabling many more and the virus is still active. We had to respond rapidly: NHS England forbade F2F contacts requiring us to change our systems overnight, not an ‘excuse’ but necessary to maintain a service. We have never avoided seeing patients or want to make it difficult. You say it could be difficult to obtain an appointment previously. Now, with increased demand and staffing shortages, in order to provide a safe and effective service, we deal with all patient queries on the same day, late submissions the next morning. Previously appointments were often 2-3 weeks ahead for a problem which could have been dealt with at first contact. Other surgeries ask you to ring in the morning and when all slots are filled around 9am, that’s it for that day. It would be easier to run our service like that, rather than flexing daily capacity to deal with the varying demand as we do; working additional sessions when demand is high or we have staff sickness, employing extra locums at partners’ personal expense and constantly juggling rotas to provide a responsive service. The way we operate is hugely complex and stressful. Are you aware you can still phone if you prefer – exactly the hybrid system you ask for? 80% of people – of all ages - are happy to use the Patchs system to write, in their own words and time, the details of their problem or query. 20% still phone and a receptionist takes down their words for the doctor. This allows us to prioritise and offer the best response – a F2F appointment, often that day, a phone call or video, a test booked or a referral, a prescription, certificate or whatever is the most appropriate solution. This rapid response is more efficient for everyone, especially the patient. We were moving towards this type of system pre-Covid, under the NHS Long Term Plan. Recruitment and retention are big problems in the NHS as many staff, clinical and administrative, left or became part-time. Our management team spends excessive time on recruitment and we are lucky to have our staff when they have many other choices to work in a less stressful and complex environment. If you have any solutions we’d be delighted to hear from you but those who do work for us are keen and committed and are being trained to provide a good service. I am glad the receptionist spent time helping you and am sorry you were unable to remember your password and use the Patchs system. It is simple to reset a forgotten password – please ask a receptionist team to help again but as above, you can always use the phone if you prefer. Change is often difficult to accept but we have to adapt to new circumstances. Please try again and we hope you can adapt, as most of our patients have and like the majority, appreciate the improved, albeit different, service we now have to provide. Dr Alan Selwyn
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Review titled Improving practice
Rated 4 stars out of 5
by Harbir Singh - Posted on 31 March 2023
The new patches system is working .My daughter has used it for my wife . In my case I called directly yesterday & the call back is good as it saves you waiting on the phone .Am trying it again today . However , as I write I get a call -Friday 31st 1130 am from receptionist. My daughter has done two patches requests & not been called back . All she wanted to check if referral to physio is progressing & not waste doctors time. In my case I am fortunate to resolve my own health issues by exercise & diet .For the average person your most important partner in life is your body . Perhaps glitches in reading doctors notes & call backs!!
Visited March 2023
Review titled Willow Tree Family Doctors
Replied on 10 June 2023
Dear Harbir, Thanks your comments. I am glad you have found the Patchs system works for you and sorry it didn't for your daughter, though I understand the issue was resolved. I agree it is an efficient system and should have given a quick response but often it takes time to find out what is going on when another provider is operating the service, as in this case. I hope you both have a good experience in future - please let us know, as we are still making changes to optimise the system and welcome suggestions.
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Review titled Not very professional service to the patients
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 06 February 2023
They use to be much better now they hardly answer the calls as every time I rang them it look like about one hour to answer your call. Also they made me to wait from September to February to fill my pco application form even when they charge £85 for this small service and as they said it will be 1 month waiting in the beginning and after 6 month still said you are on waiting list and told me to go private and withdraw my applications form. So was very un happy and annoyed by them.
Visited February 2023
Review titled Willow Tree Family Doctors
Replied on 09 February 2023
Dear Anonymous, I am sorry you don’t find us as good as we used to be. I do accept that the whole of the NHS is not functioning as it once did. In fact, most of society has suffered since the pandemic and the host of other factors which have together led to to shortages of staff and goods and economic turmoil. Pretty much all services – public and private- have degraded to some degree. It has not been easy for anyone and I think it is too much to expect to be able to run the same quality of service we used to given the difficulties. (See the response below for some more details). However, despite the hard times, we have kept the show on the road, with same day responses to all queries from patients (or early next day if reaching us in the early evening) – a much better access to services than we hear about from elsewhere around the country. Patchs, our online system, is the easiest way to contact us and saves waiting on the phone, though an hour on the phone is a very rare event. We do answer our calls and monitor them all and can track them to investigate if there has been a problem, so if this happens again please let us know at the time and we can look into it. Do also try ringing at a quieter time later in the day. I am sorry if your application for a PCO license was delayed. I cannot understand why you say it took this long, though, unless there were specific complications around your application. Without knowing your details I am unable to investigate this. PCO applications are a private service and NHS care for our patients has to come first but we complete PCO applications regularly for our patients so this sounds a strange anomaly. Incidentally, the £85 fee is a good deal cheaper than most other optional providers of this service. We do want to give the best service and do try hard. Most of the time things go well but people rarely need to point that out to us on public websites, so it can sometimes give people an unbalanced impression. Things will inevitably go wrong occasionally: letting us have your details allows us to try and correct mistakes and prevent them happening to others. I’m sorry we have annoyed you and hope we can do better for you in the future. Regards, Dr Alan Selwyn
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Review titled Worst practice
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 28 March 2023
Use to be a good practice but since the pandemic the service got worse specially reception takes a hours to answer calls no help to patient staff very arrogant.
Visited January 2023
Review titled Willow Tree Family Doctors
Replied on 28 March 2023
Dear Anonymous, I am not sure what exactly your comments relate to. I see you visited around 2-3months ago - does this relate to one incident or more and why wait so long to write this? You have not detailed anything other than a general impression so I really cannot comment in any detail. If you have a specific concern it is always good to raise it with the practice at the time so we can investigate and correct the issue and apologise if we have messed up. We don't like to give a bad service and we'd always like to improve. You are right that the pandemic has had a huge effect on the NHS and society in general. I am sure you have noticed that most services and businesses have been adversely affected. Like many others, we find it very hard to recruit staff and have chronic shortages, including doctors, nurses, healthcare assistants as well as receptionists and administrators. The NHS has been particularly hard hit; you have no doubt heard about this through the national media - it's not just our problem. This makes it very hard to provide the previous high level of service and some things such as telephone response times have declined due insufficient staff to answer the phones, though it has improved greatly in the last three months (since you apparently last visited). We have also just recruited a new Patient Operations Manager to improve staff training and customer facing services. We are doing our very best to try to achieve the highest level of service within the resources available. It would be nice if you recognised the good work we do as well as your negative views. We do some things exceptionally well such as responding to all medical needs and admin requests within 24hrs and usually on the same day. This is much better access than most surgeries. I can see you are angry, but headlining we are the 'worst practice' really doesn't tell anything helpful. Its is so easy to criticize anonymously on a public forum and without understanding the issues. General unfocussed negativity like this just perpetuates the current general onslaught against general practice and the NHS. No wonder we cannot recruit and no wonder good people have been leaving the service in droves and no wonder the NHS is, as a result, on its knees. These kind of general comments just demoralise our hard working staff and leave us more vulnerable and less able to do our job. If you have any constructive ideas we'd love to hear them. We are always open to new ideas and keen to try different approaches. We want to work with out patients not in opposition. Dr Selwyn, Senior Partner
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Review titled 1 hour on the phone to ask about a prescription
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 21 July 2022
Willow Tree Family Doctors used to be one of the best practices, however, sadly that is not the case anymore. Doctors are still great, personnels are helpful, however, waiting for an hour for a quick and easy phone call is unacceptable, I hope the practice manager knows we also have work to do, we also have a life, we don’t have a spare time to wait for 1 hour on the phone. Very sad, but the practice manager should either address this or if she can’t, allow someone else to manage the practice.
Visited July 2022
Willow Tree Family Doctors has not yet replied.
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Review titled Excellent Service
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Tom - Posted on 13 June 2022
I have had to visit Willow Tree Surgery a few times in the last couple of weeks and am pleased to report that I have found all staff (both medical and reception) to be professional, caring and helpful in all dealings. All appointments have run on time. The staff I have been seen by at reception have always been efficient, polite and friendly. Also the premises always appear well kept and clean. Thank You to all, keep up the good work.
Visited June 2022
Review titled Willow Tree Family Doctors
Replied on 09 August 2022
Thank you is much for taking time to write a positive review - our staff were delighted to receive a much needed pat on the back at this difficult time.