Attleborough Surgery - Ratings and reviews
Reviews
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Review titled Awful....again
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Melanie Hawes - Posted on 25 March 2024
I have been attempting to get an appointment with someone for a blocked ear that I have had for 2 weeks. I have followed all advice on the NHS website to no avail. I submitted a request for an appointment around half past 7. My symptoms being that I am unable to hear, I have a headache and feel nauseous with the pain in my ear and a continuous whooshing noise made worse whenever I turn my head. The response? We are full, you will need to go to the walk in centre. I don't feel that I am safe enough to drive into a city nor can I sit on public transport for that time with my symptoms. I then called and explained this to the receptionist and noted that my medical records hadn't been passed onto someone medically trained as they would be able to see that I have had this problem many times before as well as a number of operations on my ears that mean this is likely to be an ear infection. I was advised that the reception manager would be in touch, I advised that she would need to email me as I can't hear without someone explaining things to me. Of course an hour later I had a phone call...that I couldn't hear. This is the fourth time I have made a complaint about this practice and none have been acknowledged by the practice manager and they have been sent directly to their email address, says it all really.
Visited March 2024
Review titled Attleborough Surgery
Replied on 08 April 2024
Thank you for your feedback. Unfortunately the Practice is not able to respond to individual complaints via this platform as this would be a breach of patient confidentiality, but thank you for raising your concerns which we have investigated.
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Review titled Horrendous
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Denise Chatfield - Posted on 04 August 2023
After being on morphine for over 15 years I am now getting a message when I try to order my repeat prescription that I am no longer able to have a repeat! I thought you would need to know contraindications of stopping a controlled drug! Terrible thing to do! It’s bad enough that I’ve been told I have suspected Cancer but I’m not ill enough to get an actual appointment with a Doctor , now I will be so very ill coming off morphine because they won’t give me my prescription!
Visited August 2023
Review titled Attleborough Surgery
Replied on 08 April 2024
Thank you for your feedback. Unfortunately we are unable to respond to individual complaints or concerns on this platform, due to patient confidentiality. However, we can confirm that as part of our arrangements for the safe management of patient medications, the Practice carries out regular medication reviews and when this is due a medication may be suspended from a repeat list; the medication can still be requested but will be reviewed by a GP or Clinical Pharmacist before being approved. A medication would not be stopped without prior discussion with a patient, or where a serious safety concern was indicated with the patient or medication. We hope that this information has been helpful to your understanding of why a medication may become unavailable to request from a repeat list, with the reason being to ensure that the medication is still being safely taken and continues to be effective and appropriate for the condition for which it was prescribed.
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Review titled Great response
Rated 3 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 25 August 2023
I recently requested an opportunity to speak to a diabetic nurse with regards to my blood test results. I used the online contact system. I had a telephone appointment booked within a couple of hours. I spoke to a nurse within a few days. Very pleased with the speed of the response.
Visited August 2023
Review titled Attleborough Surgery
Replied on 29 August 2023
Thank you for your review and feedback. We are pleased to hear how effectively the system worked for you and the timely support we were able to offer to help you with your health condition.
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Review titled Good and improving
Rated 4 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 25 July 2023
Great service. Filled in an online form at 8am, Dr rang at 10am and prescription ready for collection straight away from the dispensary. Dr very friendly, understanding and knowledgeable. Spoke to receptionist at one point who was polite but not particularly helpful, and didn’t seem keen on interacting, perhaps that’s a result of the kind of communication they’ve been getting recently, I don’t know. Overall Good service and much improved from a year ago.
Visited July 2023
Review titled Attleborough Surgery
Replied on 04 August 2023
Thank you for your positive review. We are very grateful for you taking the time to provide this feedback and for the extra detail relating to your entire interaction with the Practice.
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Review titled Disorganised and dangerous
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 02 May 2023
This mob are incapable of processing repeat prescriptions. Which isn't difficult, let's face it - there are a team of numerous dispensary staff who are completely unreachable, incapable of doing what is asked for or of actually producing the pills. My mother consistently has problems with getting the pills she orders, month after month and has to fight tooth and nail to get her prescription filled. Utterly useless and potentially dangerous.
Visited May 2023
Attleborough Surgery has not yet replied.
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Review titled Worst practice I've ever dealt with
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 12 May 2023
Having to wait over 2 weeks just for a call back for an issue that leaves you unable to work is crazy. I've yet to have this practice actually be able to help with a single medical issue, the only time I've been able to get help is by diagnosing myself first otherwise it takes months for anything to get sorted. When I did manage to talk to someone last time the Doctor on the phone didn't appear to care about what I was calling for at all and I could barely understand what she was saying as the room was so echoey and it sounded like she was moving furniture around and slamming draws shut. I have 0 faith in this practice at all and wish there was another one in the area to go with. There's are too many houses being built here and not enough GPs
Visited May 2023
Review titled Attleborough Surgery
Replied on 16 May 2023
Thank you for your feedback and we are sorry to read your review of our Practice and the services we provide. In order to manage patient demand safely we provide a highly resourced same day service for patients with new and/or acute health issues, with other issues being triaged and booked in as timely a way as possible with our team of GPs, Advanced Care Practitioners, Nurse Practitioners, Mental Health and Physio colleagues and Social Prescribers. You have correctly identified that the national shortage of GPs and the increase in patient demand is challenging and is a pressure that most GP Practices are facing, but we are immensely proud of the excellent staff that choose to work at the Surgery and the extended skills that they can offer to support our patients. We have recently employed two new GPs and have two Clinical pharmacists joining our team very soon and have a good history of retaining our staff who feel very rewarded being part of our team and serving our local community.
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Review titled Incapable of safely serving the local community.
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Lydia Rix - Posted on 23 March 2023
Incredibly small surgery for a large patient catchment area, resulting in patients being turned away, unable to seek clinician advice/treatment due appointment request processes being closed, or as the surgery put it in their online statement, "currently unavailable as all routine capacity is now full". Patients despair as their concerning symptoms/ailments don't meet the access criteria for A&E services and are above the remit of local pharmacy services. Dangerous practice such as this has dangerous consequences. How long until the local community of Attleborough pays a fatal price?
Visited March 2023
Review titled Attleborough Surgery
Replied on 24 March 2023
Thank you for your feedback. We have been working hard for a number of years with our local commissioners in order to secure the essential funds to expand our Practice facilities, so that they remain current and in line with population expansion in Attleborough. We were also part of the Neighbourhood Planning Group for a number of years and worked hard to ensure that health care provision was recognised as a priority for the local town and surrounding villages. Changes within the local and national NHS landscape have made progressing plans challenging, but we remain positive about securing better and larger facilities for the future. In the meantime, the Practice team works incredibly hard to meet the needs of our population, with demand expanding significantly, resulting in the Practice providing over 9,000 more contacts year to date when compared to the previous 12 month period. We have innovated in how we deliver care in order to achieve this additional capacity, with no additional space. The Practice will always work hard to provide on the day access for urgent same day need and where this is not possible, will signpost patients to pharmacy services, NHS 111 or the walk in centre in order for patients to be aware of alternative access where they feel unable to wait. Our routine capacity supports over 18,700 patients and this does often mean that patients do unfortunately have to wait for an appointment.
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Review titled Very poor service
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Susan - Posted on 13 March 2023
Picking up a prescription has never taken less than 20 minutes. In 3 years I have not been able to see a GP face to face. You can't book appointments in advance - forced to fill in an on-line form or queue for ages on the phone. I could go on!
Visited March 2023
Review titled Attleborough Surgery
Replied on 14 March 2023
Thank you for your feedback, which is always appreciated. Unfortunately we continue to be challenged with queue times for prescriptions, which is as a result of a transfer of all repeat prescription management for chemist patients to the Practice and issues relating to local stock availability within our local chemists. We encourage all of our patients to use the NHS app for on-line ordering, but still have a high percentage of patients attending the Practice to request their medications, which impacts on queue times. Regarding face to face appointments, these are still offered every day across all clinical groups including our GPs. Our clinical team triage all patient requests and where a face to face is deemed appropriate this will be offered, although many conditions and health concerns can be managed on the phone or by virtual appointment. In this way, our clinical teams are able to support many more patients each day that would not be possible if all of our patient contacts were face to face appointments. We hope that this response has been helpful in responding to your concerns.
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Review titled Unable to book an appointment
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 03 January 2023
Unable to speak to a real person. The appointment forms are disabled online and the reception is simply diverting to AnE or walk-in centres all the time. Unable to understand how the practice is running without being answerable to anyone. Trying to find a way to lodge a formal complaint on their website as well but seems like that’s also blocked.
Visited December 2022
Review titled Attleborough Surgery
Replied on 11 January 2023
Thank you for your feedback and we are sorry to read of your frustration when trying to contact the Practice. Our phone lines are open during core hours and our experienced reception team are available to provide help, support and advice to our patients. The Practice opens its on-line forms each morning from 6.30am and we work hard to keep these open as long as possible to allow patients to contact the Practice via this route. However, once our clinical capacity is full, it becomes unsafe to leave our forms open unless we can guarantee clinical review of the information sent to us by a patient; it is for this reason that our forms are usually switched off earlier in the morning. At this time we unfortunately have to turn off our on-line facility, requesting that our patients contact us by telephone so that we can assess each individual request that is made and re-direct patients in 'real-time' to alternative services for advice and support, unless the request is for an urgent same day issue, which we endeavour to respond to via our emergency team. Thank you also for your feedback regarding the issues you have faced when trying to lodge a formal complaint with us. We will review this as are keen to ensure that patients can still provide feedback to us, even when our clinical forms have been switched off
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Review titled Online appointment
Rated 4 stars out of 5
by David Macfie - Posted on 16 November 2022
I am undergoing tests, some of which are in. I received a text asking me to make an appointment to discuss them. Going online, because the phone isn't the best way for a neck breather to communicate, I find only a daily appointment page, now closed. In desperation I filled in the routine appointment form, with a note explaining my situation. I ask the practice to provide a facility for patients to follow up test results without this farcical runaround, not everyone can phone, or visit, when voice and mobility can be in difficulty... Please feel free to email me anytime, and please, have a little imagination in your approach to appointment making! n. b. Text is also acceptable. I have to point out, however, that not having an email address or text return number severely restricts some patients ability to communicate with the practice...
Visited November 2022
Review titled Attleborough Surgery
Replied on 19 November 2022
Thank you for your feedback. We are sorry to read of the frustration you have had when trying to contact the Practice via our on-line system to make a follow up appointment to discuss your test results. The Practice does re-open its on-line forms each morning from 6.30am and we work hard to keep these open until mid-morning to allow patients to contact the Practice via this route. However, once our clinical capacity is full, it becomes unsafe to leave our forms open unless we can guarantee clinical review of the information sent to us by a patient; it is for this reason that our forms are sometimes switched off earlier in the morning. At this time we unfortunately have to turn off our on-line facility, requesting that our patients contact us by telephone so that we can assess each individual request that is made and re-direct patients in 'real-time' to alternative services for advice and support, unless the request is for an urgent same day issue, which we endeavour to respond to via our emergency team. Thank you for your feedback and we are sorry that we are unable to provide on-line access all day, which is dictated by high levels of patient demand.