Balmore Park Surgery
59A Hemdean Road, Caversham, Reading, Berkshire, RG4 7SSContact details and opening times
Patient ratings and reviews
Leave a review
Help others by sharing your thoughts and experiences about Balmore Park Surgery.
Reviews
-
Review titled Awful practice
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 06 January 2023
I phoned this surgery to find out if they have received a referral from my doctor from my surgery for a physio session. As I am not registered with their surgery, the receptionist said that they could not locate me on their system and that I should wait to receive a text, an invite to make an appointment. They could not confirm if they have received any information from my surgery. I asked how they communicate with other surgeries, do they receive a text, an email and if this information is stored and recorded somewhere. I asked this questions several times but it was ignored. They also did not clarify when the period of waiting of 4-6 weeks start to count, is it when they received the information from my doctor or when they send me a text to make an appointment. The general attitude was that of being completely indifferent and uninterested in this matter. They also said that there is a waiting list of 4-6 weeks. I explained that I did not want to wait for 4-6 weeks only to find out that they do not have my details and then they decided to end the call in the middle of the conversation. Appalling service!!
Visited January 2023
Review titled Balmore Park Surgery
Replied on 11 January 2023
Hello, I am sorry that you have had a bad experience when telephoning our surgery. If you could contact me directly I will be able to listen to the phone call and deal with the matter appropriately. Thank you Andrea McFarlane Practice Manager
-
Review titled Great practice
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Laura F - Posted on 26 January 2023
Very happy with doctors and nurses at this practice. My doctor shows duty of care every time I have a concern, she listen to my problems , understands my worries and tries her best to find the best solution. All staff are doing their best, and lately I could see an improvement with reception staff, which is great because you could see they are doing their best.
Visited January 2023
Review titled Balmore Park Surgery
Replied on 24 May 2023
Dear Laura, Thank you very much for your feedback. It is nice to hear you have had a positive experience. Your feedback will be passed on to the team. Thanks, Balmore Park Surgery
-
Review titled Extremely poor management
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 01 January 2023
At the end of December I phoned to make an a appointment for a blossoming test at the end of January. I was told that there were no appointments available in January. The alternative was a bus journey to RBH for a two minute appointment. I also needed a blood test in mid February. I was told that the list was not open. Therefore no appointments in January but no appointment could be made in February!
Visited December 2022
Review titled Balmore Park Surgery
Replied on 11 January 2023
Dear Patient, Thank you for your comments. We have had a lot of difficulty with providing enough capacity for phlebotomy appointments. We now have two new additional phlebotomists who are undergoing a period of training before further appointments will be released. We have prioritised those people who are frail, elderly or undergoing chemotherapy so those who are physically fit have been asked to go to the hospital. I am sorry that this has been inconvenient for you. We hope to be able to offer a better service by February. Andrea McFarlane Practice Manager
-
Review titled Appalling…
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 05 December 2022
The reception team are beyond diabolical. They never introduce themselves when picking the phone up, which makes it very difficult to log a complaint. I have asked today, very politely, who I was speaking to only to be told “one of the receptionists”. Never had this with any other surgery I’ve been in my whole life, as the their name is the first thing they say in other GP surgeries. The service here is appalling and keeps happening with me and many other people, but looking at some of the answers from the practice manager on here I can tell where the main problem resides… I’ve been mistreated so many times I ended up losing my mind recently, and was told to change practises in that case, which unfortunately I can’t because any other in the catchment area is currently full. Rest assured if this was a running business relying on paying customers with a choice to be served elsewhere, they’d gone out of business a long time ago. This leads me to suffer from extreme anxiety when calling in now when I need anything from the surgery. Awful to feel this way as a patient in healthcare services! My prescriptions have also been messed around in a few occasions and the receptionists seem to clearly have access to patients’ records, as they seem to know everything including sick notes with are personal, confidential and none of their business anyways. Couldn’t make it up…
Visited November 2022
Review titled Balmore Park Surgery
Replied on 11 January 2023
Dear Patient, I am sorry to hear that you have had a negative experience with our practice. As this is an anonymous posting I am unable to comment on the specifics. If you would like to contact the surgery directly I will be able look in to your complaint properly. The Medical Receptionists do have access to specific areas of patient records so that they can effectively process requests such as Fit Notes. They do not have access to areas which are not relevant to their job. All staff are bound by a confidentiality contract and so no information is shared. If you are very unhappy with our service you do have the option to register at one of the other practices and they are all currently taking patients. I am not asking you to leave only letting you know that you do have a choice. Please do contact the surgery if you wish to make a complaint so that the issue can be addressed properly. Andrea McFarlane Practice Manager
-
Review titled Rather worrying
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Pam Denyer - Posted on 25 October 2022
Last Thursday I was experiencing chest pain, not excruciating but enough to be concerning. It continued overnight so I decided to ask advice from my GP. As any phone call takes ages to be answered I phoned the emergency number hoping to be advised as to my further action. I was asked the problem, then asked if I wanted an ambulance. I explained that I was not sure, would just like some advice. I was told abruptly I needed to get off the line as I was blocking urgent calls. Luckily I was then told that a Doctor would call me back, just what I needed. He suggested an Ambulance would be a good idea, I was blue lighted to theRBH and straight into the Cardiac Unit where it was discovered I was experiencing a Heart Attack and life saving surgery was given immediately. I am an 82 year old woman, not given to making unnecessary fuss, and I could easily have just put the phone down and not done anything further when I was told I needed to get off the line. I often watch TV programmes about how hard pressed the ambulance service is but I have never heard a caller dismissed in the same way that I was. It was the most upsetting part of the whole experience and consequent hospital stay. The doctor I spoke to was so kind and helpful, it was the person answering the phone call nearly cost me a lot more grief.
Visited October 2022
Review titled Balmore Park Surgery
Replied on 11 January 2023
Dear Mrs Denyer, I am sorry that you have had a negative experience when calling the surgery. I have listened to the telephone call and education given to those involved. I hope that you have made a good recovery since your heart attack. Andrea McFarlane Practice Manager
-
Review titled Thorough and responsive care with extraordinary compassion
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 10 August 2022
It has been a tremendous relief and reassurance to have this practice and my mothers GP in the background of my mothers end of life care. The responsible GP is a shining example of the NHS at its best
Visited August 2022
Review titled Balmore Park Surgery
Replied on 11 January 2023
Thank you for your kind words, they really do mean a lot to us all. I am glad to hear that your Mother has received good care. Andrea McFarlane Practice Manager
-
Review titled Compassionate and expedient care
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Michael Weeks - Posted on 09 August 2022
Yesterday I called in a panic as my 3 month old scratched his eye, the receptionist was fantastic and the doctor called back within a few minutes and saw my boy ten minutes later. I can't praise the team more. Thank you
Visited August 2022
Review titled Balmore Park Surgery
Replied on 10 August 2022
Dear Patient, I am very pleased to hear that the team was able to support you and your child received the appropriate care that they needed. Thank you for your positive feedback. Yours sincerely Andrea McFarlane Practice Manager
-
Review titled excellent
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 29 July 2022
Able to see the Doctor I wanted within reasonable time. Happy with meeting. Got the tablets required next morning.
Visited July 2022
Review titled Balmore Park Surgery
Replied on 10 August 2022
Dear Patient, I am pleased to hear that we provided the service that you needed. Yours sincerely Andrea McFarlane Practice Manager
-
Review titled Poor communication causing numerous issues
Rated 3 stars out of 5
by Patient 101 - Posted on 05 July 2022
More often than not this surgery does not correctly issue prescriptions. They take an inordinate period of time to process them and then they are wrong OR when you get to the pharmacy, simply not there. You’re sent back to the surgery reception and the receptionist invariably treats you like a pariah! It’s happened so many times now that I plan in an afternoon just to collect a prescription — before that if there is a call required I have to factor in more time. It is highly inefficient and if a business were to act like this it would soon go under. Not good enough!
Visited July 2022
Review titled Balmore Park Surgery
Replied on 10 August 2022
Dear Patient, unfortunately you have not provided your name so I am unable to comment on your specific case. If you would like to contact us via our website I will be very pleased to look in to what has gone wrong. Yours sincerely Andrea McFarlane Practice Manager
-
Review titled Rude, ignorant and abrupt
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Gerry Baldock - Posted on 09 June 2022
It took 45 minutes to get through to book a blood test appointment, the receptionist that answered was very abrupt, rude, aggressive and quite frankly ignorant! When i answered her questions she would put me on hold with saying anything and then come back on the line with a very clipped response. I eventually got a blood test appointment only to receive a "test" message informing me it was now cancelled and I would gave to contact the NHS and make an appointment direct with them! Firstly This type of behaviour/ response from a member of staff dealing with the public/customers, because that is what we are. your paying customers, is absolutely atrocious, and in any other business would be totally unacceptable, in any way shape or form, it makes the patient feel worthless, humiliated and at the least, reluctant to try and make contact with the surgery. Please make your staff take some sort of customer relations courses to help them appreciate the sort of negative effect they are having on sometimes, some very unwell people. Secondly try to address the blood service that you should be offering fit for purposes. It is creating lots of anxiety for the elderly and the already stressed sick people that are trying to contact you, not because they want to! But because they want to get better and not have to contact you. With the proposed government changes re applying for sicknotes to a nurse or your clinical pharmacist I can only envisage the phone calls getting worse at the surgery reception. The practice partners should be looking at ways to ensure, we the patients, are treated more like people than "nuisance cattle". Thirdly get more phlebotomists or staff that can take blood as the elderly cannot always travel distances. It appears that you take on to many patients than what you can cope with just because you get more money and then offer a bad service. If this where a company/ business that relied on returning customers, that had a choice of where to go, I'm afraid you would go out of business through very bad experiences.
Visited June 2022
Review titled Balmore Park Surgery
Replied on 14 June 2022
Dear Mr Baldock, Thank you for your feedback. We have had a lot of difficulties with our phlebotomy service over recent months. I am sorry that this has caused difficulties for you and other patients. This has been caused by extended periods of staff sickness in the phlebotomy and nursing teams. On occasions there has been no warning of the absence and so patients have had to be cancelled at very short notice. Agency nurses to cover the service have been very hard to come by. We had to redirect patients to the hospital as we simply did not have anyone available to do the service. The measures we have now put in place to remedy the situation are: • New additional part time phlebotomist begins working in July on a permanent contract. • Agency phlebotomist will be working every Monday and Friday until our long-standing phlebotomist returns to work. • 1 Receptionist and 1 secretary have completed phlebotomy training 2 weeks ago. They now need to complete a period of observation and practice before being able to work with patients. They will also need to complete a course of vaccination against hepatitis. • In September 2 members of the Pharmacy Team and the Mental Health Practitioner will also receive phlebotomy training so that they can take blood samples at appointments instead of asking patients to make another appointment for this test. I am hoping that these measures will lead to less problems with the phlebotomy service in future. In regard to your conversation with our receptionist when booking your phlebotomy appointment, I have listened to the telephone call. The recording starts from the point when you are placed in the queue for your call to be answered. Your call was answered at 2 minutes and 2 seconds. I agree that the Receptionist should have told you that they were about to put you on hold when they were searching for an appointment for you. I will listen to the call with the Receptionist concerned so that she can learn from the errors that were made. Her responses were short and clipped but they were not aggressive. In response to your comment that we are taking on additional patients in order to make money, this simply is not true. We were forced to take 7000 patients under duress when the surgery closest to us closed a few years ago. The additional expense of increased staff and accommodation has outstripped any profit. We try very hard to be the best surgery that we can. We do not always achieve this, but we keep trying and come up with new ways of working to deliver the best care that we can within the restrictions that there are. Patients do have a choice and are free to register at any of the other nearby surgeries, including those which take patients from outside of catchment. Andrea McFarlane Practice Manager