Montpelier Health Centre - Ratings and reviews
Reviews
-
Review titled Terrible service do not go this health centre
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 05 April 2024
We needed a medical certificate to be signed by a GP from this health Centre. It has been weeks, and there’s no medical certificate. My mum went to this health centre and asked them to complete the medical certificate. They told her the medical certificate will be completed within about 7 working days. She went to the health centre about a week later and the medical certificate is not completed. They told her that they’ll speed up the process. Finally, she received a call from them telling her to collect the medical certificate. She was very busy then so she couldn’t. We went to the health centre a week later, and they told us that the medical certificate has not been completed? Like what was the point of the phone call if the medical certificate is not ready for collection? So confusing. They couldn’t give us an exact date of when we can collect the medical certificate. It seems like our needs are not taken seriously by this health centre.
Visited April 2024
Review titled Montpelier Health Centre
Replied on 05 April 2024
Dear Anonymous We are very sorry and concerned that you feel we have not met your expectations of service and care. In order to follow up your complaint, please can you email bnssg.mhccomplaints@nhs.net to provide your mother's details. We can then ensure that this matter is dealt with immediately. Kind regards Caroline Hawkins Patient Services Manager
-
Review titled Staff and doctors are great but very badly managed
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 20 March 2024
I've been really happy with the doctors and nurses and staff but the appointment system is so frustrating as it's almost impossible to book an appointment. I had a scan and had a text from the GP asking me to call the surgery to book an appointment to discuss results and I called and was told to call at 8am the next day which I did at 8am on the dot and had to call 24 times to even get in the queue. Then after those 24 attempts I was number 30 in the queue and waited 55 minutes to then be told by an automated service that there no bookable appointments for the day and to call back at 8am the next day which inevitably results in exactly the same problem. It's very anxiety inducing and especially when you've been told to call the surgery to book an appointment and wanting to know the outcome of a scan as soon as possible. As I said the staff are very nice and helpful and the doctors are great but I don't understand how this system can work and ultimately what to do as following procedure and calling at 8am doesn't work as everyone is doing the same and then all the appointments run out!? :/ Left feeling stressed and anxious and helpless as what to do ?
Visited March 2024
Review titled Montpelier Health Centre
Replied on 08 April 2024
Dear Anonymous I am very sorry that you are experiencing such difficulty in contacting the surgery. Please contact me via bnssg.mhccomplaints@nhs.net and we can discuss further. Kind regards Caroline Hawkins Patient Services Manager
-
Review titled Good staff; rubbish organisation
Rated 1 star out of 5
by John Northam - Posted on 12 March 2024
Made an appointment. Was told that only telephone appointments were possible with a 3 week waiting list. I left my telephone number and advised that my old phone number was no longer active. Waited 3 weeks for the appointment. Typically the GP called the defunct phone number. Made a complaint. Complaint not acknowledged or responded to. Called early morning (waited 50 mins for answer) asking to speak to the practice manager. Said not to call lunch time. 3 hours later (lunch time) received stroppy phone message on my vm from the practice manager. The nursing and auxiliary staff are excellent but the working culture of the surgery stinks and leaves you feeling like they despise their patients, with no means of communicating with them. You are lucky if you even get an appointment.
Visited March 2024
Review titled Montpelier Health Centre
Replied on 13 March 2024
Dear Mr Northam We are very sorry and concerned that you feel that we have not met your expectations of care. It is important to us that we put such matters right. I hope I can satisfactorily address the issues you have raised: I have been able to listen to the call you made to the practice, and the conversation you held with one of our health navigation team. You clearly explained the situation with the current provider of your mobile phone and asked to be called on your landline. The health navigator noted this in the booking notes for the GP to read when contacting you for your appointment. Unfortunately, the GP missed this information and attempted to phone you on your mobile and you therefore did not receive a call. I am very sorry that this happened. The GP has also asked me to convey his apologies for this oversight. Your email of complaint was sent to bnssg.mhccomplaints@nhs.net on 7th March 2024 at 17.47 hours. An acknowledgement email, together with an apology and a newly booked appointment date was emailed in direct response to your message (using the email address that you had messaged on), on 8th March 2024 at 8.51 hours. I have listened to all calls relating to your telephone number. None are recorded from the Practice Manager, and I have confirmed with her that she has not had any contact with you at any time. The calls recorded for your telephone number are conversations held with a health navigator and the dialogue is always pleasant and helpful towards you. If you can provide any further information regarding the voice mail you received, that would be helpful in identifying the caller, as the call does not appear to emanate from MHC. We recognise there is a huge demand for primary care services everywhere. It is a significant challenge to meet this demand given the limitations on our resources. Please be assured that all clinical and administrative staff employed at the practice (and elsewhere within the NHS) continue to work extremely hard to meet the needs of our patients in such circumstances. On notification of your published review, I telephoned you to explain that we had contacted you promptly to apologise and offer another appointment. Unfortunately, you had not received my email and therefore were unaware that a further call had been booked for 12th March 2024 and you therefore subsequently missed the call. I was able to resend my email to evidence that it had been sent on 8th March 2024, and to advise you that you would be contacted that afternoon (12th March 2024) by the Duty Doctor. I understand that the GP who originally called you yesterday morning, called you again in the afternoon and discussed your health issues. The Duty Doctor also later called you, but you were able to tell him that you had already held a telephone consultation with Dr Guest. Please accept our apologies for any distress or inconvenience this situation may have caused. Caroline Hawkins Patient Services Manager.
-
Review titled Terrible
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Heather kelly - Posted on 28 December 2023
I am a type 1 diabetic, I have been unable to order my insulin during Christmas despite going to my practice 3 times over Christmas. I am without my insulin and in dire straits and now without insulin
Visited December 2023
Review titled Montpelier Health Centre
Replied on 02 January 2024
Dear Ms Kelly Thank you for speaking with me on the telephone today. Please accept our apologies for this situation. I am glad that your medication has now been prescribed. I will now investigate this matter and respond to you directly with my findings. Once again, please accept my apologies on behalf of the practice. Caroline Hawkins Patient Services Manager
-
Review titled awful
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 25 September 2023
Every single time I try to book an appointment I have to wait for at least 45 mins on hold before even being put through to reception. The staff I speak to on the phone should not be determining the severity of my issues, and therefore choosing what priority list I am on. The online forms never work as there is never availability, so people are forced to waste hours on hold - you are wasting so much of people’s time. We all work, not everyone can just sit around waiting for almost an hour to get through to someone to then be told that the appointments available are weeks away. It has also happened on a number of occasions where I get through to the reception and have the person dealing with the request just hanging up the phone!! This is your staff who are meant to be helping sick and unwell people hang up the phone with no help or assistance after making them wait on hold!! This is appalling. This is a national healthcare service, not hairdresser. You need to do better, you need to manage better, and the people on the phones need to be trained better. You are playing with peoples health. This is unacceptable. The automated message when calling the survey is over a minute long be more concise- why are you wasting more of peoples time??
Visited September 2023
Review titled Montpelier Health Centre
Replied on 29 September 2023
Dear Anonymous We are sorry that you have experienced these difficulties. We are looking forward to a new and very much improved telephony service being installed at the practice within the next few weeks. This includes a patient call back facility to avoid our patients waiting for their call to be answered. We hope very much that this facility along with other improvements, will ensure that we can offer an efficient service to our patients moving forward. All our call handlers are trained health navigators working under NHS guidelines to navigate the call to the correct clinician within the required timescales. We are sorry that your call ended abruptly. Our navigators would only end a call when a patient is being abusive towards them, but we are aware that calls have been cut off as part of the current problems experienced with our current telephony service. As you can appreciate, there is a huge demand for primary care services. It is a significant challenge to meet this demand given the limitations on our resources. However, please be assured that the clinical and administrative staff employed at the practice and elsewhere within the NHS continue to work extremely hard to meet and manage the needs of our patients in such circumstances. We are very sorry that you feel that the practice has not met your expectations. We would be very happy to meet with you to discuss your issues further. Please contact Caroline Hawkins, Patient Services Manager on bnssg.mhccomplaints@nhs.net to arrange a meeting.
-
Review titled no appointments
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Lin - Posted on 03 July 2023
Even during coronavirus I could get an appointment, but not now. Now they send us online which never works when I come home at 4pm "Your practice isn’t accepting online requests right now", and I am not going to take time off from work to try to fill the online form at 8 am like woman on the phone said. On their website you can find info about appointments in advance with the link, which shows you log in into Patient access - which has never any appointments there or I am just unlucky. As I am not going to fight with these people for my rights to get the appointment without nerves and even NHS which I contacted doesn't want to help to improve this booking system, saying "NHS England does not control the booking/phone system", it's time to move on and find another practice. I was trying to get appointment in another place online and it worked without any problem even at 5pm.
Visited July 2023
Review titled Montpelier Health Centre
Replied on 14 August 2023
Dear Lin We understand the frustrations that you have experienced in booking your appointments and the difficulties in contacting the surgery. Our econsult system is usually available Monday-Friday and closes at 5pm daily overnight and reopens at 8am each weekday morning. It is closed over the weekend. The practice, along with others, took the decision to do this to be able to process econsults promptly each day. The system also automatically closes each day once 50 submissions have been received. We are awaiting further guidance regarding the reintroduction of Patient Access which ceased to be available during the Covid pandemic. Patients are still able to book routine appointments (either for telephone or face-to-face - same day or routine) by telephone or in person each day. These appointments are available from 8.00am every morning, but as you can imagine they are booked up very quickly. We are looking forward to a new and very much improved telephony service being installed at the practice later within the next couple of months and we hope very much that this will ensure that we can offer an efficient service to our patients moving forward. Please contact Caroline Hawkins, Patient Services Manager, on: bnssg.mhccomplaints@nhs.net if you continue to experience difficulties.
-
Review titled Not helpfull in Relocation
Rated 1 star out of 5
by William Smith - Posted on 15 May 2023
Completed the online application, Im new to the area, currently in temp accomodation in the catchment area whilst a property is sorted, was advised that Brighton doesnt have the same rules as everyone else and my application was rejected. I was advised to use the drop in cntre where the waiting time was 6 hours plus, this seemed to be a laughing matter for them.. They advised that only a proof of adress was acceptable regardless of the situation, and I should call the GP secretary, which I did, to be told by the same person they had just gone home (at 1445pm) no a very nice welcome, and seemed blasay in the fact that gov rules dont apply to them. no wonder the reviews on site are all negative about attitude. Someone in NHS authority really should have a word with them, seems they live in ther own little emporium.. William Smith
Visited May 2023
Review titled Montpelier Health Centre
Replied on 16 May 2023
Dear Mr Smith I wonder if you are confusing our surgery: Montpelier Health Centre, Bath Buildings, Bristol BS6 5PT with: The Montpelier Surgery, 2 Victoria Rd, Brighton, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN1 3FS Please let me know if your review refers to us in Bristol, and we will of course, look into the matter further. Many thanks Caroline Hawkins, Patient Services Manager. email: bnssg.mhccomplaints@nhs.net
-
Review titled Great patient and family care
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Beverley Forbes - Posted on 24 July 2023
My mother had a chronic condition that left her incapacitated. The team at Montpelier Health Centre always showed love, care, respect and compassion to my mum, myself as her carer and our family. Having the designated health navigator was invaluable and paramount to making the systems work seamlessly This was our experience with each visit to the surgery, each home visit, yes home visit, or phone call. When my mum required end of life care, the GP and rest of the team were compassionate and asked what her wishes were and these was respected We received three phone calls from the surgery after mum's death to ask how we were and to offer bereavement support. We even received a card of condolence through the post. That meant so much and really touched our hearts Despite the incredible pressures the team are working under, they have never shown that this was and issue and always made us feel like we were a priority Thank you for your hard work, dedication, resilience and for maintaing the ethos of Montpelier Health Centre
Visited May 2023
Review titled Montpelier Health Centre
Replied on 14 August 2023
Dear Beverley Thank you for your kind review. It was always a pleasure to treat and care for your lovely Mum, and it was a privilege to be involved in her end of life care. We all join in sending you and your family our sincere condolences for your loss. Caroline Hawkins, Patient Services Manager.
-
Review titled Very difficult to book an appointment
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 15 May 2023
Almost impossible to book an appointment. eConsult is already full not taking any more bookings, at 8:45am on Monday morning. Got put in a queue when ringing them (after a very, very long welcome message), but no-one picked up. I note that their page says they are currently accepting new patients when they clearly do not have capacity.
Visited May 2023
Review titled Montpelier Health Centre
Replied on 18 May 2023
Dear Anonymous We are sorry that you have had this experience. As you can appreciate, there is a huge demand for primary care services, and simply not enough workforce or money invested in general practice to meet current demand which is growing in both volume and complexity. Both the clinical and non-clinical teams at Montpelier Health are doing their absolute best to meet patient demand with such limited resources, and we ask for your patience as we work through these difficult times. We take our patient reviews very seriously and it would be a valuable learning outcome to be able to discuss the issues our patients have taken the trouble to comment on. This would enable us to audit each review and respond to the patient individually. Please contact Caroline Hawkins, Patient Services Manager on bnssg.mhccomplaints@nhs.net to discuss further.
-
Review titled Avoid
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 11 May 2023
This is possibly the worst GP practice I have ever been with. I can't get an appointment at all, which has caused quite significant distress. Not quite sure how it is so impossible to access basic healthcare? Even with my repeat prescription that is on the system, it took around 5 days for it to be approved. This is way too slow for medication I needed immediately. At my previous practice I would get a text to alert me when my medication had arrived at the pharmacy, but this practice doesn't seem to do this. I have tried to use econsult, but haven't been able to book an appointment through it, as it is always closed. At my previous GP practice this was open until 5pm and I received a call back in the following 3/4 days for non-urgent appointments and a lot of my consultations were done over the phone. Not sure why this practice is unable to do this? When I walked in to speak to reception about booking an appointment for a simple referral, they told me I have walk to the centre to queue from 8am to try and get one. This is unmanageable and quite frankly ridiculous if you have to go to work. Reception even told me that they understand how difficult it is to get an appointment. Completely shocking really, as it appears that nothing is done about it. This is a failing practice with clearly poor management and I will be looking for another one. One to avoid
Visited May 2023
Review titled Montpelier Health Centre
Replied on 18 May 2023
Dear Anonymous We are sorry that you have had this experience. As you can appreciate, there is a huge demand for primary care services, and simply not enough workforce or money invested in general practice to meet current demand which is growing in both volume and complexity. I am sorry that you were unable to submit an eConsult. This service IS available from 8.00am-6.30pm daily, however once we have received 40 submissions, the service automatically closes for the day. This is to ensure that we can process the eConsults promptly and within the recommended timescales. I am sorry you were inconvenienced. Patients are respectfully requested to order their medication in a timely manner to ensure that they always have an adequate supply to avoid running out and requiring an emergency supply. This can be ordered up to two weeks in advance. We always advise our patients that it can take up to 5 working days for a prescription process to complete. Both the clinical and non-clinical teams at Montpelier Health are doing their absolute best to meet patient demand with such limited resources, and we ask for your patience as we work through these difficult times. We take our patient reviews very seriously and it would be a valuable learning outcome to be able to discuss the issues our patients have taken the trouble to comment on. This would enable us to audit each review and respond to the patient individually. Please contact Caroline Hawkins, Patient Services Manager on bnssg.mhccomplaints@nhs.net to discuss further. Thank you.