Halesowen Medical Practice - Ratings and reviews
Reviews
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Review titled Not great
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 03 January 2024
This practice has gone downhill, massively. It’s gone from waiting a few days for an appointment to practically a month. Their policy when it comes to uti’s is disgusting, anyone who has had one before knows you need help urgently. Previously you could ask at reception for a sample bottle, bring it back to have the results provided same or next day. Now when you speak to them you are told “you need an appointment” and that’s that. I did this a few weeks back and was told the next appointment was just over a month away, I can’t stress enough how important it is for people with this to have help right away and so to be told that is extremely disappointing. I then asked if there were any pharmacies nearby taking place in the uti scheme, was told the only one is on Manor Lane. I wouldn’t have been told this if I hadn’t asked. It’s great that they can help but it’s not exactly easy for people to get to when having a uti makes it stressful going out. The practice need to have a better system in place or the pharmacy next door need to get involved with uti care.
Visited November 2023
Halesowen Medical Practice has not yet replied.
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Review titled Seeing a doctor
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Ann Lake - Posted on 03 August 2023
My husband has tried to get an urgent appointment to see a Doctor, after being advised by the Pharmacist next door. He rang the surgery and explained his problem and was told he could not see one for at least 2 weeks. He tried ringing the next day to see if there was any cancellations, same reply. There used to be an emergency appointment service at this surgery, this doesn’t appear to be the case any more. He has had to book an appointment with a clinic in 5 days, not near us. I am so disappointed with this surgery. I know there are issues around lack of gps etc., but he needs to be seen. There does not appear to be a service any more. Failing this, he will need to go to a&e. This used to be a good reliable surgery with excellent doctors, I feel we have lost this service. I am speechless and very disappointed overall.
Visited August 2023
Review titled Halesowen Medical Practice
Replied on 08 August 2023
Dear Mrs Lake, Thank you for your review. I am sorry to read that your husband has experienced difficulty in accessing an appointment at the practice. We offer a proportion of daily urgent appointments which are released at 8am Monday-Friday. On a Monday and Friday we offer 36 same day appointments for patients with acute medical problems. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we offer 24 urgent appointments. These patients are seen by the on call GP. In addition the on call GP will also see a further number of patients who need to be followed up as high priority for a particular health problem. The on call GP will field any urgent prescription requests or requests from secondary care organisations to include NHS 111 referrals. When the urgent appointments have all been booked, then we sign post patients to NHS 111, the urgent care centre or the Brierley Hill GP Hub, which is the provider you mentioned in your review. The Brierley Hill hub offers GP appointments to any Dudley GP registered patient. These appointments are bookable via the registered GP practice. This service was introduced to assist Dudley primary care with the high demand on services over winter and fortunately the service continues to be available on Saturdays. Many GP surgeries in Dudley utilise the Brierley Hill Hub to offer patients the option of a GP appointment, to avoid a further wait at the GP practice. We have tried many appointment systems at the practice as a response to the changing pressures that we face. Ultimately, we will always struggle to meet the high demand for appointments. We have been impacted by the national GP recruitment problem as we look to replace retiring GPs. We use locum GPs at times when our capacity is low and we are looking forward to welcoming a new GP and Practice Nurse to our team in the next 3 months. We moved away from the old system whereby patients were added to an urgent call back list because this list became unmanageable, unsafe and often meant that patients needed to be seen face to face in addition to receiving a phone call which which not effective use of clinical resource. All other appointments are book ahead and non-urgent. Currently our wait time for a routine telephone appointment is 2 weeks and 3 weeks for a face to face GP appointment. These wait times do fluctuate. We sign post patients to other clinicians where appropriate to save GP appointments to include the paramedic, First Contact Physiotherapist, First Contact Metal Health Practitioner, the Practice Based Pharmacist, Community Pharmacy Minor Illness services, Dementia and Frailty Support Services, Social Prescribers and Care Co-ordinators. I am sorry to read that we were not initially able to offer an urgent appointment. If you would like to discuss this matter directly then please do not hesitate to get in touch with me via the practice. Regards, Rose Dunnington Practice Manager
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Review titled Great doctors but painful process to get an appointment
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by B Mandal - Posted on 05 April 2023
I am with the surgery for past 15 yrs and never had complaints. However, over last one year it is so challenging to connect to the receptionist and then finding an appointment to see doctor. Over the past few days, always been told no appointments to see a doctor available for next 3 weeks( multiple occasions). And ended up going to private or urgent care. Due to limited GP availability in the area, we are stuck and the whole experience requires significant improvement. Unsure if practice care to improve the services.
Visited March 2023
Review titled Halesowen Medical Practice
Replied on 09 May 2023
Dear Mr Mandal Thank you for your feedback. I am sorry that you have experienced difficulty in accessing a GP appointment. You may be aware that prior to May 2022 the practice allowed patients to submit an online request for an appointment via our website. This worked very well initially and meant that all appointment requests were triaged by a clinician prior to an appointment being booked. The benefits of this system included appropriate use of GP appointments and effective signposting of patients to other clinicians or services to further save GP appointments. Unfortunately, this system became unmanageable for the practice as the number of requests that were received on a daily basis outweighed the clinical time available to review and safely assess the requests. The practice therefore opted to revert back to the previous system whereby appointments were booked by the Reception staff at the point of contact from the patient. Our Reception staff now signpost patients to the most appropriate appointment, but this change has meant that appointments are now booked much further in advance. In addition to routine (non-urgent) appointments, the practice also has to try to meet the demand for patients who feel that they need to be seen on the same day. We offer a number of same day 'urgent' appointments with a GP. Once these appointments have been filled then rather than open up further urgent appointments (which would reduce the number of appointments available for routine appointments), patients are signposted to NHS 111, the Clinical Hub at Brierley Hill (appointment only) or the Urgent Care Centre. We are currently looking at means of re-introducing online triage systems to reduce the volume of patients trying to access the practice by phone as we are aware of the currently wait times for patients to get through to the practice by phone. We hope to release a further update around these changes very soon. Rose Dunnington Practice Manager
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Review titled Terrible, stressful experience
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 28 November 2022
On a waiting list for coil removal since feburary. Offered an appointment in August. Cancelled by practice and not offered an alternative. When I contacted them to ask when the next appointment would be was told there wasn't any appointments. Due to stomach pain was booked in for an ultrasound (coil still not removed, no appointments). Appointment was made quickly. Appointment was fine and I was told my coil has been dislodged and is floating in my womb. A week after the ultrasound received a message that I had been booked in for an MRI. Rang the centre for more information. Told I could have an appointment to discuss results of ultrasound a week after the MRI. I asked if I could have one before so I knew why and was told they would get back to me. No one got back to me. Rang again and told they know nothing about the MRI and I needed to contact the hospital to resolve the issue. Offered no explanation. Spoke to me as if this was my fault or doing. Offered me an appointment to remove my coil at the end of December 4 months after the cancelled appointment but only because I contacted them. Appointment to discuss results of ultrasound is a month after the test. Very unhelpful and a stressful experience. Still no idea what is going on. Every time you have an appointment you see or speak to a different doctor. The communication at this practice is is appalling.
Visited November 2022
Review titled Halesowen Medical Practice
Replied on 29 November 2022
Thank you for providing this feedback. We are sorry to read that you have received a disatisfactory service from the practice. We would be more than happy to investigate your concerns further and would encourage you to contact the practice to enable us to do this. Regards, Halesowen Medical Practice
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Review titled Fantastic Practice
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Lisa Sharman - Posted on 09 August 2022
I have been suffering severely with HG in early pregnancy. This week the GP’s and receptionists have all gone out of their way to get me seen or to have a phone consultation. One GP saw how distressed I was in reception and saw me there and then at the end of practice. A massive thank you to all the reception staff and the GP’s.
Visited August 2022
Review titled Halesowen Medical Practice
Replied on 10 August 2022
Dear Lisa, Thank you for taking the time to provide this feedback. We will share this with the rest of the Team. Regards, Rose Dunnington Practice Manager
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Review titled Great service from great practice
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Very grateful patient - Posted on 31 August 2022
Doctor gave a rapid reply over the phone to my request and provided assuring and positive advice with feeling of empathy. Can’t praise them enough.
Visited August 2022
Review titled Halesowen Medical Practice
Replied on 29 November 2022
Thank you for taking the time to provide this feedback. We will pass it on to the team. Halesowen Medical Practice