Hope Farm Medical Centre - Ratings and reviews
Reviews
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Review titled not great communication
Rated 3 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 26 February 2024
I have been with this practice for 20 years and quite happy for the majority of the time, having only to go ocaisionally. for the past year I have ordered my repeat prescription thru email but trouble started when that was discontinued. I am without my salbutamol and feel pressure to use the nhs app. I do not own a smartphone and do not plan to use one. I could get no help from reception who told me i needed my birth certificate and photo id for the app anyway. i could understand if i was new to the practice but i am not. is it possible to get my prescription without physically going to the surgery, which costs me twelve pounds in taxi fares.
Visited January 2024
Review titled Hope Farm Medical Centre
Replied on 26 February 2024
Dear patient, Thank you for taking the time to leave some feedback on Hope Farm Medical Centre. I have reviewed your feedback and have detailed my response below. If you would like to discuss this in person, please do not hesitate to contact the medical centre. During the covid pandemic the medical centre changed its repeat prescription process to allow patients to order repeat medication via email as the practice had restricted access. This was taking a lot of additional admin time to process, and following an audit in November 2023 the admin time taken to process email requests for repeat medication was taking on average 33 hours per week. It was agreed that this time would be much better spend in other areas of the practice such as having more staff to answer the phone during busier times. In consultation with our Patient Participation Group, it was agreed to stop receiving repeat medication requests via email to an alternative electronic solution of the NHS App. We communicated this decision to patients giving them 6 weeks’ notice via email, text message, our website, and social media accounts. The overwhelming response has been positive in transitioning patients over to the NHS App. We have several ways that patients can order their repeat medication. 1. Via the NHS App (or other apps which are available). This completely removes any administrative input; the request goes directly to your usual GP for signing and you are able to track the progress of your request 2. For patients with access to the internet i.e., desktop computer, you are able to log onto your NHS account via https://www.nhsapp.service.nhs.uk/login which will allow you to order your repeat medication 3. Patients can also allow proxy access to the NHS App to a relative to order their medication on their behalf 4. At the front desk in person 5. Ordering from one of the local pharmacies who will order patients medication on their behalf directly with the medical centre If patients previously used the electronic option of email to order repeat medication requests, they would have the facility to use an alternative electronic format of either the NHS App or a desktop computer to access their NHS Services account to order. With regards to your query over identification. You can download and register for the NHS App directly from one of the app stores. On the rare exception that the app identification process fails, patients need to obtain a linkage key from us. In order to handout this linkage key we do require identification. Due to the nature of the information that this linkage key would enable access to, and to ensure adherence to our data protection responsibilities, it is very important that we verify who we are handing out this information to. I hope this response allows you to see that a thorough process was taken in changing our repeat prescribing process, that we actively engaged and communicated with our patients, and have a range of alternative solutions.
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Review titled Waited 90 minutes for my 6 year old to be seen
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 01 December 2023
I have just waited 90 minutes for my daughter to be seen for a appointment which we got told to come in for 11am. I took her out of school and thought we would be less than a hour, she missed 2.5 hours of school I also had my 2 year old with me, which was very hard to keep him sitting still in the reception for 2 hours, which was certainly not fun. And because i politely complained to the doctor when she was finely seen, i felt flustered and like a worrying mum for the appointment. They shouldnt tell people to come for 11 if there is over 20 other patients to also be seen at this time. And a complaint wont be taken seriously at the desk, they had no sympathy for how long i waited with 2 children
Visited December 2023
Review titled Hope Farm Medical Centre
Replied on 26 February 2024
Dear patient Thank you for taking the time to leave some feedback on Hope Farm Medical Centre, and I am sorry your recent visit fell below the expectations we set, and I hope your daughter is now feeling much better. I have reviewed your feedback and have detailed my response below. If you would like to discuss this in person, please do not hesitate to contact the medical centre. Each day we have appointments that can be booked on the day by patients needing to be seen that day by a GP. Once we have reached capacity, a further assessment of need is undertaken to determine whether the patient still need to be seen that day, at a future date or whether an alternative service would be more appropriate. After this assessment patients are advised that they can come up at 11am for a sit and wait appointment after the doctor’s morning surgery, and the patient is advised that there can be an extended wait depending on how the doctor’s morning surgery has gone. The doctors are willing to see extra patients in need of care that day on top of their morning booked clinic as this is an important aspect of providing high quality healthcare and access to our registered patients. Having reviewed your individual case, this was the process that was followed and explained to you at the time of being offered a sit and wait appointment at 11am. Although you arrived promptly, you did not check in at reception until 11.46am so the GP was unaware your daughter had arrived and was sitting in the waiting room, so this further exacerbated the long wait experienced. Your daughter was seen by the GP at 12.14pm, which was 28minutes after your check in time. Following your experience and feedback, we have implemented that our Patient Services Team reiterate to patients the need to check in for any sit and wait appointment offered when arriving at the medical centre, and for the team to keep an active eye on the waiting room to identify if any patient has been waiting for an extended period of time and may not have checked in on arrival. Our intension is that these steps will reduce the chance of this situation happening again in the future. I am sorry again for the delay in being seen, and the long wait experienced by you and your daughter. Yours sincerely Hope Farm Medical Centre
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Review titled Recognition
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Lauren Pacheco - Posted on 06 February 2023
I would like to say how impressed I was with my daughters appointment today. Other drs at the surgery are always great, but Dr Seddon,in particular today was fantastic. He was absolutely brilliant with my daughter, really knowledgeable, directed the appointment to her and explained things amazingly to her. I left feeling confident that her issue will be resolved fairly quickly with the advice given. Thanks again!
Visited February 2023
Review titled Hope Farm Medical Centre
Replied on 07 February 2023
Dear Lauren, Thank you so much for taking the time to leave some feedback on your daughters recent appointment at Hope Farm Medical Centre. We really appreciate when patients take the time to do this. We are really pleased that you and you daughter had a positive experience with Dr Seddon, and that you left feeling confident in the appointment and advice given. We have passed on your feedback to Dr Seddon. Best wishes, Hope Farm Medical Centre.
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Review titled Oversubscribed and difficult to get an appointment
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 04 May 2023
Once you can finally get in the doctors are friendly and professional, the nursing team are great, very knowledgable. They are also quite good as getting children in and prioritising them. Now the bad. Unfortunately based on my recent experiences it is very difficult to get appointments at this surgery these days as an adult. It requires a phone call on the day and even then if you get through within an hour it’s a case of begging the call handler to get you in. I was asked specifics about the condition by non-medical staff so they could decide if I would be worthy of an appointment. This worries me from a privacy perspective as there is no doctor-patient confidentiality as far as I know when talking with reception staff. In my opinion triage should not be done by non-medical staff. The surgery really needs fewer patients or more doctors to handle the demand so it’s good to see new patients are not being taken on currently, so things should not get worse. There is a tendency to be offered telephone appointments for conditions that are not appropriate. You can’t examine inside somebodies nose over the phone for example. If you attend in person before 8am you will find a queue snaking through the carpark daily due to what I assume is the oversubscription of the surgery. I’ve tried to give a balanced review and do feel the service from medical staff is of a good quality, it’s just getting an appointment that is the problem. This is specific to this surgery and although I will keep my child registered I am considering registering elsewhere for myself due to the lack of availability. This could be a top surgery in the area if there was a customer focused approach taken.
Visited January 2023
Review titled Hope Farm Medical Centre
Replied on 15 May 2023
Thank you for your review. I will try to answer the questions you have raised I am pleased you find the doctors friendly & professional, & our nursing team are great & knowledgeable, & you have had a good experience in access for your children. I will ensure these comments are passed to our team Access for appointments: we continually review our capacity & demand, & there are several ways that patients can book appointments. Looking at April 40% of appointments were available to be booked on the day for acute need, the remaining 60% were pre-booked up to 4 weeks in advance. Many on the day appointments are released to be booked online from 7am & I would encourage patients use the NHS App to book online. The next pre-bookable appointment bookable today would be in 4 days’ time. We review this monthly to ensure we can balance capacity and demand. Time queuing: we saw the need to improve patients ringing and their time queuing. Our new phone system allows for more patients able to queue, including a call-back function. We reviewed our phone data & changed the staff rota. Our current average queue time for April23 was 5mins 23secs. I know that some days patients do queue outside but with the changes we have implemented this will reduce the need to queue outside at 8am. Some clinicians start at 8am so patients can be queuing for booked appointments not just to make an appointment. Care navigation: for the last nine years we have employed Patient Services Assistants rather than receptionists. Our highly trained team require very different skills & they go through extensive training. They follow instructions from the GPs to determine the patient’s requirement for an appointment so they can book them in with the most appropriate clinician as not all conditions require a GP appointment. This process is overseen by one of our clinicians & their role is not to determine if you need an appointment, but who the appointment is with. This helps with capacity by freeing up GP appointments for those that need to see the GP. All our staff understand the need for confidentiality & follow the training & protocols set around maintaining confidentiality. We have always valued & prioritised face-to-face appointments, & having reviewed our appointment data for April23 we delivered 79% of appointments as face-to-face, & we will always champion face-to-face consultations, so if you want a face-to-face consultation we will book that for you. I hope I have been able to provide you with some explanations to frustrations you have experienced, demonstrated change & that we continually review patient feedback & practice data to continually improve our service. I hope that you now feel confident to stay registered with us, & I will ensure your feedback is discussed at our next practice meeting as an opportunity to identify any further learning. I am unable to contact you directly due to the anonymity but if you would like to discuss this further please ring the medical centre
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Review titled Great service from reception
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Miss A Holloway - Posted on 30 September 2022
What a lovely practice very clear and understanding got my appointments booked and ready to go no problems at all
Visited September 2022
Review titled Hope Farm Medical Centre
Replied on 15 November 2022
Dear Miss A Holloway. Thank you for finding the time to leave such lovely feedback about Hope Farm Medical Centre. It is wonderful to hear that you got your appointment booked with no problems. We will certainly pass your comments to the whole practice team at our next training session. Best wishes Patient Services Team
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Review titled They kept me Alive.
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by BrianC - Posted on 17 August 2022
I rang the practice on 4 July 22 with an aching calf muscle and shortness of breath at 8am. I saw Dr at 9am and attended the AMU at Countess of Chester at 11am and was diagnosed with DVT and Bi-lateral Pulmonary Embolism. A lot of people say I am lucky to still be here, but it isn’t, it is the excellent care provided by this practice. Thank you for your amazing service.
Visited July 2022
Review titled Hope Farm Medical Centre
Replied on 17 August 2022
Dear Brian, Thank you so much for your feedback and we all hope you are starting to feel a lot better now. I will pass your feedback onto the practice team, particularly the doctor you saw, and I am pleased that our processes and navigation from the front door all the way through to the doctors consultation room worked seamlessly for you and we got you the expert care that you required. Take care, Hope Farm Medical Centre