Langstone Way Surgery - Ratings and reviews
Reviews
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Review titled Appointment
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 21 September 2023
Hi l called surgery and make an appointment today. I am still waiting for my appointment. I need to know about my medicine because Dr gave me them for two weeks. I don’t know what can I do? I continue my medicine or stop it.
Visited September 2023
Review titled Langstone Way Surgery
Replied on 27 September 2023
If you have an appointment allocated, a clinician will call you the same day. We cannot give you a time for the call as each person's problem will take a different amount of time to deal with, so setting a time is not possible. We simply ask that you keep your phone with you so that you can take the clinician's call when it comes. If the clinician needs to see you in person, they will make an appointment for that later in the day and give you a set time to come in. I hope that your issue was resolved, though as your review is made anonymously, I have been unable to check that you did eventually receive your call.
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Review titled No appointments
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 25 September 2023
I have been trying for a month to make an appointment. Online system is always unavailable. I tried today at 8.04am and same again
Visited September 2023
Review titled Langstone Way Surgery
Replied on 27 September 2023
Unfortunately, on-line booking remains extremely popular with patients and all available appointments go within minutes of the system opening at 8.00 AM, so 8.04 can be too late! We do reserve some appointments for those unable to book on-line to be released by a phone call to the surgery, but these also go very quickly. You can also try again at 1.00 PM via phone call, when we release some further appointments in the afternoon. Alternatively, if you can attend out of hours or at an alternative location, we can book an appointment for you via the local hub in the evenings or at weekends. Call the surgery to request this type of appointment. Demand for appointments remains high and so time is of the essence if you want to book via the on-line system. Otherwise call the surgery and we will do our best to help.
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Review titled Horrible
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 10 October 2023
Everything others have said about this place is true. I honestly don’t know what they are doing and how they get away with it. I called the number and went from 3rd in the queue to 1st and was waiting so long I went to the surgery in person and went to reception where the rude unhelpful person there did nothing to assist me and they still hadn’t answered the phone. When I said I’ve been on hold for 45 minutes stuck at “you are caller 1 in the queue” they said oh there’s a fault with that. It’s like a trick they enjoy playing on everyone, how many people are trying to ring the number and wasting time holding all the while they know no one is ever going to get through. I’ve left and registered elsewhere. That’s what everyone should do and when they have no patients they won’t get any NHS money and go out of business. Because that’s what it’s run as, a business scamming customers who don’t realise they have a choice, it has nothing whatsoever to do with healthcare.
Visited September 2023
Review titled Langstone Way Surgery
Replied on 11 October 2023
I apologise if a receptionist told you that there was a fault with the phone service. We are not aware of any faults with it, so if you experience a problem, please ask the reception staff to take details of the number you were calling from and the date and time of your call, so that we can investigate what occurred. There is no need to hold on once your call has been answered and placed in a queue. We do have a call back option you can choose so that you can put the phone down and retain your place in the call queue and the system will automatically call you back when your call is nearing the front of the queue, leaving you free to get on with your day in the meantime. I do not recognise your assessment of the service provided by the surgery. We have hunderds of appointments with numerous clinicians including doctors, advanced nurse practioners, physician associates, practice nurses, a healthcare assistant, physiotherapist, mental health worker, social prescriber and care co-ordinators every week, all of which are filled. If you book with a doctor, advanced nurse practitioner or physician associate, you will be contacted the same day and if they decided they need to see you in person, will book a set time for you to come in,also usually on the same day. You can book an appointement with a practice nurse in advance for many issues, either on the phone or in person at reception. We offer late night appointments on Tuesdays until 8.00 PM and out of hours appointments via our Primiary Care Network hub both in the evenings and at weekends. In addition to this, we also have daily duty doctor appointments for those who feel that they have a problem that cannot wait until the next day. If you phone and explain this, you may be able to get one of these appointments even if all the routine appointments have already been booked. I do not know anyone at the surgery, clinician or non-clinician, who does not give 100% to their efforts to help those contacting the surgery with any issue. Unfortunately, our many satisfied patients do not often place comments on this forum, which does tend to be used mainly by those dissatisfied for whatever reason. However, as those leaving comments here often do so anonymously, we have no opportunity to address the issue they may have experienced. It is usually far more constructive and helpful for all parties to contact us direct so that we can try to sort out the problem you have experienced instead and this is what I urge you to do. You can email the surgery, write us a letter, email a complaint or feedback form via the website or just come in and talk to us. We cannot help you if we do not know who you are or what you wanted. Although I understand the frustration that may have prompted you to leave a comment like this, I do not recognise the response you describe and if you had contacted us, would likely have had a very different experience.
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Review titled Impossible to see a GP
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 15 June 2023
I have tried over the past 3weeks to make an appointment using their online system. It continually says that it’s unavailable and will be working the next day. It never is. It’s impossible to make contact via phone as calls are not answered and when I called in to ask how else I could make an appointment a very disinterested receptionist told me that they knew they had problems with the online service and to call for an appointment. When said that system didn’t work either. Therefore my only option then was to call 111 go to A&E or change GP surgery. The receptionist did not respond and just shrugged her shoulders. Unbelievable!
Visited June 2023
Review titled Langstone Way Surgery
Replied on 27 September 2023
We are aware that appointments are in short supply. Unfortunately, demand for appointments increased hugely during the pandemic and this has not eased since. On-line booking has become so popular that all available appointments are fully booked within minutes of the system opening at 8.00 AM each day, so although you may surmise that it isn't working, it is. It is simply that we have to close it very soon after it opens or we are overwhelmed with requests that we do not have the capacity to fulfill. As a result of the popularity or on-line booking we have revised our booking system and do now hold back some appointments for release only via a phone call to the surgery and some that we also only release in response to a call at 1.00 pm each day. This allows those without on-line access or who develop a problem later in the day a chance to request an appointment as well as those who submit an on-line request at 8.00 AM. Additionally to this, we have lost several staff members over the course of the year and this has further reduced appointment availability. It has been a challenge to find staff to replace them given the current shortage of qualified clinicians available to hire and the competition from other areas of the sector and other surgeries. However, we have now found additional staff, so appointment availability has now improved. Appointments are also available via the out of hours hub and at weekends, so if you are also prepared to see a clinician at an alternative location or outside of core hours, this will improve your chances of securing an appointment. I am sorry for any difficulties experienced.
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Review titled rubbish
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 25 May 2023
the staff not helpful at all can't get through the phone to ask a question or want to speak to someone about my scan result if i go and see them about a letter came from the GP for a blood test they have no clue what so ever they don't even try to help i email them about prescription and attach INR reading they don't even bother to open the attachment until i go and see them in person to tell them...what type of staff are these
Visited May 2023
Review titled Langstone Way Surgery
Replied on 31 May 2023
I am sorry that you are having difficulty contacting the surgery. The phones are less busy during the afternoon, so that may be a better time to try to call. We are short-staffed at present and are doing our best to find new replacement staff. This will take some time, so please be patient whilst we go through this process. It is currently difficult to find staff willing to take up posts in the NHS and this is affecting our ability to be as efficient as we would like, but we are working on a solution to this problem and hope to be able to improve our response times as soon as possible.
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Review titled Terrible service do not register
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 21 April 2023
You have to use an online service to book an appointment it is impossible over the phone. The online booking is full after 10 minutes. They will not respond to emails, they do not follow up on prescription changes by hospital consultants, they rarely do face to face appointments even when you ask for one. They don't follow up and check on you when the ambulance service has been called and recommended that medication been adjusted. They don't respond to comments made on repeat prescription webforms (even though there are no ways at all to communicate with the practice. The doctors themselves are embarrassed at the service that their practice provides
Visited April 2023
Review titled Langstone Way Surgery
Replied on 31 May 2023
I am sorry to hear that you are dissatisfied with the service you are receiving from the surgery. We are in fact attending to all of the things you mention, albeit with some delay. Like many areas of the NHS at present, we are affected by loss of staff and difficulty finding new staff to replace them. Please bear with us through this difficult period.
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Review titled Impossible to get an appointment
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Karine Rizzoti - Posted on 03 January 2024
Today I finally was able to contact the surgery to get an appointment for my lasting running injury for which I have already paid hundreds of pounds in private physiotherapy (since it is impossible to get an appointment at this surgery). I submitted my request at 8.00am on the dot. I was so happy I was able to do this and started to think the system was actually working. Unfortunately, I then received a message saying that I did not get appointment today. So I have to submit a new request tomorrow. Tomorrow, at 8.00am I will be in the tube, going to work and same everyday from then on. So what do I do now? Why can't my enquiry been entered once and for all until I get an appointment? When I tried to text back the surgery to ask these questions, my message is not sent. This is truly unacceptable.
Visited January 2023
Review titled Langstone Way Surgery
Replied on 23 February 2024
I am sorry you have found it difficult to get an appointment. Unfortunately, the volume of patient requests usually exceeds the capacity of appointments available, but we do find most patients succeed in getting an appointment within a few days. You do not need to resubmit the same information; just refer us to your original request. You do not have to book on-line. You can also ring the surgery. There may be a wait for the phone to be answered at busy times, but there is a call back option you can choose that enables you to put the phone down, but retain your place in the call queue and receive a call back once your call is nearing the front of the queue. We do not offer Physiotherapy at the surgery. We do have a Physiotherapist who can diagnose and offer advice or request pain-killers for you from the GP, but otherwise would need to refer you to the hospital for Physiotherapy, for which there is a waiting list, so getting Physiotherapy on the NHS can take some time. We do open until 8.00 PM on Tuesdays and you can book an appointment for some of the clinicians on duty at this time in advance. Only the Physician Associate appointments need to be booked on the same day. We also have appointments available in the evenings and at weekends at our hub and Barnet Federation locations, which you can also book in advance. The clinicians will have access to your notes for these appointments and will be able to leave a record of your visit in your notes so that we can see that also. Even if all routine appointments have been booked for the day, if the problem is urgent and you feel it cannot wait until the next day, you can ask to be referred to the duty doctor. The duty doctor will either deal with the issue the same day or advise that it can be dealt with at a routine appointment via the usual channels. You could also call 111 for advice or a visit from a doctor or go to one of the walk-in clinics at Finchley Memorial or Edgware Community Hospital. Please check their opening hours first though. We understand your frustration that it can be difficult to get an appointment, but triage requests to ensure that those with the most urgent issues or who may have tried for a few days in a row are prioritised. I hope that the options set out above are useful.
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Review titled Cannot get an appointment or get through
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 04 January 2023
Langstone Way Surgery requires some active management to improve its service: 1. It is very difficult to get an appointment using the online system. If you do not fill in the form by around 8.05 each morning, then you can forget it. Clearly they lack capacity for the number of patients they have. 2. If you call, the telephone message is 3 minutes long. It refers to the eConsult system they retired a year ago. It asks people not to turn up if they have a temperature. It says you can get us to call you back and you do not lose your place in the queue, but this functionality does not exist. 3. Forget about speaking to a receptionist unless you are happy to wait nearly an hour. Even if you are the second person in the queue, expect to be on hold for at least 20-30 minutes. 4. Once you come for an appointment and check yourself in, do not be surprised if you are inexplicably not registered. Therefore do not be surprised if you end up not being able to see a GP on the day of your appointment. 5. If the service by Langstone Way Surgery was provided anywhere in the private sector, it would have gone bankrupt long ago.
Visited January 2023
Review titled Langstone Way Surgery
Replied on 04 January 2023
Thank you for your comments. I am sorry you are finding it difficult to book an appointment with the surgery. The on-line system is indeed very popular, so appointments do get booked up very quickly. However, the triage system it employs does in practice mean that we are able to help a larger number of patients each day than prior to the pandemic, when patients had to come in in person for their appointment, whatever the problem. The on-line triage system allows clinicians to assess and action a patient's problem more quickly, sometimes without needing to see the patient in person at all, and to prioritise those with the most urgent need. The telephone message is just over one minute long and refers to the AccuRx system we use, not to eConsult. It is still relevant that patients with Covid or flu do not come to the surgery in person for obvious reasons and can be helped without needing to go out, when they may have a fever, which would do them no good at all. If there is an issue with the call back system, I will investigate this with the phone system provider and get this rectified. Calls do take a while to deal with as we have no idea prior to speaking to someone what they are calling about or how long it will take to help them. If you have an issue that requires a phone call, I recommend calling after 10.00 when the phone system is less busy. If you can ring in the afternoon, you are likely to wait for less time for the call to be answered. If you have an appointment, it will be registered both on the self check-in and at the desk, so you can check in at either location. If there is a problem with the booking, we will be happy to investigate this also. All calls are recorded and emails saved, so this should not be difficult to resolve. You have submitted your comments anonymously, but if you would approach us in person or provide your details, we will always be happy to look into any problem you might have experienced and to resolve this, but this is hard to do, when the comments are made anonymously, as we have contact with hundreds of patients each day. Please feel free to contact us.
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Review titled Bad service
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 22 December 2022
The service they provide is quite bad. It is almost impossible to get an appointment for an adult; appointments are not available and the on-line service are 'temporarily paused' very early in the morning because they do not have capacity to deal with the real amount of request they get. This area needs more GP services; this one can't cope with the population they are supposed to attend. The even make it worst internally; the GP that always prescribed my repeated blood test has retired, and they asked me to make an appointment with another GP in the practice (which is technically almost impossible) to start all the procedure again, when I have been prescribed the blood test in the past by another GP, and they have all my records. The NHS doesn't seem to realize how urgent another practice in the area is..
Visited December 2022
Review titled Langstone Way Surgery
Replied on 22 December 2022
Thank you for your comment. Your notes are available to all clinicians and so any repeated blood tests you may need will be listed in your record. There will be no need to start the process over again. There is high demand for appointments and so all appointments are filled quite early on in the day. We do however hold some back for release by phone request at 1.00 PM as well each day however, so if you cannot book an appointment using the on-line system at 8.00 AM, you have another opportunity to try again then.
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Review titled Don’t Blame The Staff
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 17 November 2022
I have read so many bad reviews of our brilliant world-class (free) NHS staff at Langstone Way. I have had only good experiences at Langstone Way, the receptionists are perfectly knowledgeable and helpful if you listen to them and follow their instructions. They are massively overstretched by COVID and staff shortages, work with them not against them please. The doctors are perfectly competent, cheerful and helpful, the nurses too. They have always helped my requests fully and provided extra help and advice too.
Visited November 2022
Review titled Langstone Way Surgery
Replied on 17 November 2022
Thank you for your kind comments. They are much appreciated. No one sets out to provide a bad service, so it is good to know hear that someone finds the service is working well for them. We try to provide as good a service as we are able for all our patients.