Lakeside Healthcare St Neots - Ratings and reviews
Reviews
-
Review titled Disgraceful
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 03 July 2023
Sick for a week now. First call to the health center, on hold in queue for 59 minutes (not joking), once on the phone they say that there were no more doctor calls available for the day, to try back another day. Tried again but no point as I am not allowed to call before 8am anyway so I can't expect a different result, only luck can tell. Called 111 and went to the hospital instead, twice. At the hospital they are not allowed to prescribe medicines and do tests, back to the GP. Still very sick but I finally managed to deliver to my health center samples in a steril box last night, including all the information they need, posted via letter box. Called the health center this morning (on hold for another hour) and they said I have to go there in person otherwise they throw my samples away. They say they will throw them, they hung up on me. I think this is not even human anymore
Visited July 2023
Review titled Lakeside Healthcare St Neots
Replied on 07 July 2023
Thankyou for your feedback, unfortunately as you have posted this anonymously we are unable to look into your specific concerns. However I would like to apologise that your experience was unsatisfactory. The NHS is experiencing exceptional demand across all sectors and this has led to increased numbers of callers at 8am, we are currently looking at our appointment system and how we can improve capacity, we have recently upgraded our telephone system to allow a larger amount of callers in. Our team work very hard to deal with patients as quickly as possible and prioritise there needs by either booking with a clinician within the practice or signposting to other services as directed by NHS England. If you would like to contact the surgery directly with your details we will be more than happy to look into your specific experience. Lakeside Healthcare
-
Review titled Sorted us out with care
Rated 4 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 22 May 2023
Today rang on behalf of my daughter. Had a bit of a wait to get through to be told no appointments and to ring 111. I only needed some antibiotics as it’s something not new to my daughter. The new reception really listened to me and got advice, to which I was put on the list for a telephone call and got antibiotics sent to pharmacy. Got to pharmacist to find it was out of stock. Rang the doctors and they sorted it quickly for me and my daughter has her antibiotics. Thank you so much for going the extra mile and helping us. Really appreciate it. I know the NHS is very stretched but you went above and beyond and prevented us having to go somewhere us. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for caring. Your receptionist were awesome today.
Visited May 2023
Review titled Lakeside Healthcare St Neots
Replied on 23 May 2023
Thankyou for your review. We encourage feedback of all kinds to inform service provision. You feedback is very much appreciated and will be shared with the team.
-
Review titled Can't get an appointment
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 16 June 2023
The only way to get an appointment is to phone them at 8am on some mornings. I rang on two days in a row, both times there were over 60 people in the queue. I have to leave for work at 8:40am. By the time I hung up there were still over 60 people in the queue. Archaic.
Visited May 2023
Review titled Lakeside Healthcare St Neots
Replied on 20 June 2023
Thankyou for your comments, I appreciate that telephone lines are busy particularly at 8am. We have all of our Reception team working from 8am and striving to answer the calls as quickly as possible. If you require a non-urgent appointment you can use our online consultation service Doctrin which is accessible between 8am and 2pm Monday - Friday. Unfortunately as you have posted this anonymously I am unable to look into you specific details however if you wish to contact the surgery we will be happy to investigate further.
-
Review titled No appointments.... nothing first thing in the morning!
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 21 April 2023
Phoned at 8am sharp on Friday am, 41st in queue, not bad, then at 8:15am when 23rd in queue, whilst my phone was on the table it went blank, cut off! Started phoning again only to be told I was more than 50th in the queue. Got through 50 mins later to be told (as I knew) that there were no appointments not face to face and not even telephone, nothing. My daughter is unwell, in pain and from what I had read on NHS website is said she needs to see a GP, So phoning at 8am it does not matter, nothing. Lakeside service can not cope with the amount of people needing it. How about this for an exercise? Ask all your telephone operatives for Lakeside St Neots at what time each morning after 8am do they 'fill' all the slots and have to say 'sorry no GP appointments left today'. I bet it is before 8:30 every morning, Lakeside do you think that is a reasonable service to offer the community of the largest town in Cambridgeshire where you are still taking on more and more new patients? Also do not even think to suggest Doctrin as an alternative when you need to see a GP that day as it takes up to 3 days to receive a reply and sometimes it is completely shut down due to lack of 'clinicians to operate it'. All that said Doctrin is a good system for something that can be discussed in several days. In the past when using Doctrin, and I have been told I do need to be seen given what has been discussed via Doctrin with GP, the GP and nurses, once you do get through are amazing. Kind, active listening and able to progress the issue or help solve it. Its just a shame the gate keeper Lakeside system have made sure not many can actually get into the service to get that excellent care they need.
Visited April 2023
Lakeside Healthcare St Neots has not yet replied.
-
Review titled Terrible GP appointment system
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 16 February 2023
Tried and failed to book a GP appointment on several occasions. Told to call at 8am to book an 'on the day' appointment which I did. The call connected then after 5 minutes it cut off, called back and I was 45 in the queue. After 35 minutes I made it to the front of the queue to be told that there were no appointments left. Why do they keep you in a queue when they know that there are a limited amount of appointments available? Their website says that you can go online and use Doctrin to book face to face GP appointments but when I asked this I was told that you can't do this, so they need to update their information to reflect this. I really can't understand how working people are supposed to get an appointment as not everyone can spend day after day trying to obtain 10 minutes with a GP. The whole Lakeside system needs to seriously improve as at the moment they are not providing a service at all.
Visited February 2023
Review titled Lakeside Healthcare St Neots
Replied on 20 February 2023
Thank you for your comments. We understand that it can be difficult to get an appointment and after listening to our patient's feedback, we have now changed our appointment booking system (Beginning of February 2023). It also allows our patients to book directly into face-to-face appointments. Although our phone lines are very busy throughout day, our receptionists work hard to ensure patient’s calls get answered as quickly as possible. However, due to the volume of calls we receive, especially first thing in the morning, call answer times may be delayed. In May 2022, the surgery implemented a new telephone system, which allows us to hold more people in the queue. However, there is still a maximum capacity – when this is reached, patients cannot join the queue. As soon as there is a space in the queue, it will connect you. Please be patient with us, unfortunately, the amount of people in the queue is out of our control and we do everything we can to get to you as quickly as possible. We are trying to give patients as many options as possible to book appointments with ease. Below are some Other Options for Booking an Appointment: Doctrin is our new online platform where you can have a digital consultation with the GP at your convenience. If there is a need for the clinician to see a patient face to face, they will certainly book a mutually convenient time with the patient via Doctrin. Follow the link on our website, or below, to access Doctrin via your NHS app log in. https://online.doctrin.uk/lakeside/stneots We offer extended access clinics, on weekends and weekday evenings where you can book with a GP, Nurse or Healthcare Assistant at any of our extended access surgeries. You can find more information about this from our reception team, where they would be able to book these appointments for you. The NHS are also working hard to make accessing advice from healthcare professionals easier for patients; The NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) offers patients same day minor illness consultations with a community pharmacist. This new service can support general practice to ensure patients are seen by the right healthcare professional, in the right place at the right time and will help make more GP appointments available for those with higher acuity needs. NHS 111 is a great service that can be accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and has clinicians available to give medical advice and signpost patients to the correct NHS service. The team there can direct you to the best place to get help if you cannot contact your GP during the day, or when your GP is closed (out-of-hours).
-
Review titled Why?
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 17 January 2023
On ringing the surgery the “welcome” message is essentially if you are really ill call elsewhere or if you proceed that there are serious consequences for rude and abusive behaviour! So you get to speak to a receptionist only to be told to make an appointment you need to ring at 8am. I ring at 8.10am the next day after 45 minutes my call is answered by the receptionist but all the appointments are gone. I have to ring the next day. So on the stroke of 8am I call again. The queue is full so I keep ringing at 8.10 I’m number 60 in the queue. 45 minutes later I speak to the receptionist to explain that I need to speak to a doctor about 2 separate issues she asks what the issues are so I tell her. Success the doctor will call me but don’t know when. At 5pm the doctor calls and I explain I need to talk about 2 issues I’m told firmly that I only have 10 minutes and can only speak about one choose one. The doctor does not know what the issues are.I explain that I told the receptionist that I needed to talk about 2 and get a warning for being rude. Realising that I’m using up my slot I reluctantly choose one issue and start to explain. The doctor is furiously typing and tells me I’m talking too quickly. I point out that if the doctor stopped typing and listened to what I was saying we might get somewhere. I then get my final warning for being rude. Finally, it appears the 2 issues I wanted to talk about may be serious and connected so I’m immediately summoned to the surgery as I may need to go to a&e. I’m examined sent for X-rays and waiting on various tests. What I wanted to say but did not for fear I’d being banned is that in 8 years with this surgery I don’t think I’ve seen the same doctor twice. The last doctor did not know me, had not read my notes and did not ask me once how I was or what I needed. It’s not hard to guess that a person with chronic pain will also be depressed. So my question is why have things got so bad that there are constant warnings about not stressing hospitals, that there are hopeless processes which seem designed to make it as hard a frustrating as possible, that it’s days of effort to talk to a doctor, when you do the speak on the phone time and process are important not the patient and talking honestly can lead to being banned. And why is there a fixation on a single symptom rather than treating a person with respect and holistically to find and prevent the underlying causes? Finally, my 4th issue is that I suspect that after 10 years my cancer may have come back but to be honest I’d rather not know but if it stops my chronic pain it may be a blessing!
Visited January 2023
Lakeside Healthcare St Neots has not yet replied.