Littlewick Medical Centre - Ratings and reviews
Reviews
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Review titled Just cant get an appointment!!
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 21 March 2024
So frustrating that the only appointment you can book is a same day appointment- and you have to do this by sitting on the phone line for an hour- only to find that once you get though, the appointments are all gone. This practice just not provide the basic service that patients are entitled to. No option to pre book an appointment, via telephone or face to face with any health care provider just does not warrant for an effective service. A routine appointment should not be impossible to get. We don't all have time to sit on the phone at 8am in the hope there's an appointment spare once you get through. Leaving this practice for another one that can actually provide basic care to their patients, as Littlewick clearly doesn't care about their patient. I know they are busy, but its not an excuse to leave your patient with no option but to utilise emergency services when its not really appropriate. This needs to change...
Visited March 2024
Littlewick Medical Centre has not yet replied.
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Review titled Wouldn’t be here without them.
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 05 March 2024
I can’t thank the reception enough for helping me while I wait for my appointment. I struggle so much and just talking with them and how much effort they go to really has saved me so many times.
Visited March 2024
Review titled Littlewick Medical Centre
Replied on 05 March 2024
Dear Patient, Thankyou for writing this review for the surgery. They are really kind words and I have shared them with the rest of the Littlewick team. We really appreciate the time patients take to tell us when we are doing something well Kind regards Carly Widziernikow Practice Manager
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Review titled Terrible - 0 stars
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 01 June 2023
Littlewick put so many unnecessary barriers in place to making an appointment; firstly there is an automated phone message trying it's very best to get you to hang up, then if you do manage to get through to someone, all of the appointments are always gone and they tell you to try again the next day. I can only assume this is so they can fudge stats and say they're seeing X amount of people the same day. Of course the receptionist needs to know all the details even though they already know there are no appointments left, it's so demeaning making patients jump through so many hoops just to try and get a bit of help. They are constantly taking on new patients & covering other local surgeries, always raking in the contract income but never putting the patients first. I've been registered here my whole life and can honestly say I've never had a positive experience, I dread phoning them. Would not recommend.
Visited May 2023
Review titled Littlewick Medical Centre
Replied on 05 June 2023
Dear patient, Thank you for taking the time to write a review for the surgery. I am sorry to hear that you are finding it difficult to contact the surgery. Having listened to patient feedback, we recently reduced the number of recorded messages on the phone lines so that our patients can get through to us more quickly. We also have live data monitoring to show us how long the call queue is so that we can adjust staffing levels to respond to incoming calls. Your comment about fudging statistics is unfounded and unfair. All data regarding appointments offered by GP surgeries is available to NHS England who monitor this by extracting the data from our clinical system. The receptionists ask for the nature of the medical problem when a patient contacts us so that they can signpost to appropriate services. This helps to ensure GP appointments are available for those patients who need to see a GP. We merged with another local practice in April 2022 which may be what you have heard about our connections with other local practices. We have an open practice list for new patients which is important as it allows local people to have a choice of GP surgery for example when they are new to the area. There are also patients who leave the surgery through moving out of the area. If you would like me to investigate your concerns further, please send the details into the surgery by email for my attention to ddicb.littlewick.letters@nhs.net or you can phone the surgery on 0115 9325229. Kind regards Carly Widziernikow Practice Manager
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Review titled Worst GP practice I've used poor management of bookings
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 16 May 2023
This practice is so poor, you have to wait each morning in a que only to be told there are no more appointments. They have no online booking system and you can not book other than on the day. They expect everyone to just call at 8am every morning on the off chance they have an appointment on that day. We have a issue that needs sorted as its getting very urgent now and have been trying for weeks to get an appointment. I am sure they will blame the fact they had a year off during COVID for being terrible, although even my barber survived it and has better management of clients and booking system than the NHS, this practice in particular is very poor, we will be looking to move to another practice.
Visited May 2023
Review titled Littlewick Medical Centre
Replied on 18 May 2023
Dear Patient, Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. I am sorry that you have found it a difficult experience to speak with our reception team and arrange an appointment. We are aware that our phone lines are busy from 8am in the morning. Our appointments are released on a staggered basis to try and ensure that there are appointments available for same day emergencies and for routine pre-booking. We know that the demand for GP appointments outstrips the supply of appointments, and we are always looking for ways to better utilise the resources we have. We have trialled and implemented different ways of running our appointment system and we are continually monitoring and evaluating our demand and supply of appointments. We also work with our Patient Participation Group when looking at our system. We have the online consultation tool where you can submit a request for medical reasons. As we have limited slots for the GPs to triage these requests, we do close the system when we are at capacity. You may need to recheck whether the system is open the following day. In England, whilst the number of GPs and the number of practices are declining, the number of patients continues to rise. In February 2023, there were over 62,355,000 patients registered in England, resulting in an average of 9,722 patients per practice. This is 2,257 more patients than in September 2015. There are now just 0.44 fully qualified GPs per 1,000 patients in England – down from 0.52 in 2015. For the GPs that remain, this means increasing numbers of patients to take care of. In Erewash, we are fortunate to have well established services to help meet the health needs of our community such as self referral pathways for physiotherapy, the On Day Service for acute illness and hubs for health checks. Where appropriate, our reception team will signpost patients to the best service to meet their needs. These services mean that our GP appointments are freed up for those medical issues that require GP input. Despite this, we are aware that there are availability issues with GP appointments and for that we are sorry. We appreciate it can be frustrating and inconvenient when the appointments are fully booked. Kind regards Carly Widziernikow
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Review titled Impossible to book appointment
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 05 April 2023
The surgery refuses to book routine appointments (in this case to assess a lump that I'm concerned could be cancerous!!). Stated they are seeing urgent cases only and referred me to their online service, which is switched off. Also tried to deter me from booking a smear test even though I have the invite letter.
Visited April 2023
Review titled Littlewick Medical Centre
Replied on 18 May 2023
Dear Patient Thank you for taking the time to write a review. I am sorry that you have found it difficult to arrange a suitable appointment. I am happy to look into your complaint, if you would like me to do this then please email the details of the complaint, including your name, date of birth and 1st line of home address to ddicb.littlewick.letters@nhs.net Kind regards Carly Widziernikow Practice Manager
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Review titled It’s gotta be bad to trigger this review!
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 31 January 2024
Getting an appointment is almost impossible, I’ve more chance of an appointment with the King. Seriously the stress that is created in just first making contact with this practice adds to whatever concern/ailment you have. Firstly being only able to ring at 8am for an appointment isn’t flexible for some folk. I’m at work at that time and can’t do my job waiting for 30 mins plus for someone to answer to be told they have no more appointments available and to try again tomorrow, I had to do this three mornings in a row before I gave up and spent money I don’t have going private. That isn’t acceptable. When the call was answered the receptionist asked what the issue was … awkward when you’re in a room with colleagues and can’t just nip into somewhere more private. My daughter is always on a bus at that time and she agrees it’s very awkward explaining the reason for ringing. When I explained the issue to the receptionist they made a brief medical assessment … are they medically trained? I was actually told my issue didn’t warrant me getting an appointment as there were worst cases plus they didn’t have any availability. This went on for several days. I even walked into the practice to be told to go home and ring at 8am. The matter was eventually dealt with privately and I was referred to an NHS hospital through that route. I absolutely dread any further issues. As for online booking systems … if you’re technophobe, as I am, or no access to media then that is challenging. I wish I had something positive to say. The only ringing at 8am needs reviewing. To expect everyone who needs an appointment to ring at the same time makes no sense and offers no flexibility.
Visited March 2023
Review titled Littlewick Medical Centre
Replied on 02 February 2024
Dear Patient Thank you for taking the time to write a review with feedback for us. I am sorry that you have found it difficult to get through to the surgery. We have taken our patient feedback on board and are upgrading our phone system with a new supplier to allow a call back function for patients which will mean your place in the phone queue is saved and a receptionist will call you back when you would have reached the front of the call queue. We envisage having this new system operational by the beginning of March. We are also asking for patients input into some of the features we can set up in the new system. If you would like to have your say, please complete the survey which should only take a couple of minutes https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RMFJFYY In England, whilst the number of GPs and the number of practices are declining, the number of patients continues to rise. In February 2023, there were over 62,355,000 patients registered in England, resulting in an average of 9,722 patients per practice. This is 2,257 more patients than in September 2015. There are now just 0.44 fully qualified GPs per 1,000 patients in England – down from 0.52 in 2015. For the GPs that remain, this means increasing numbers of patients to take care of. In Erewash, we are fortunate to have well established services to help meet the health needs of our community such as self referral pathways for physiotherapy, the On Day Service for acute illness and hubs for health checks. Where appropriate, our reception team will signpost patients to the best service to meet their needs. These services mean that our GP appointments are freed up for those medical issues that require GP input. Despite this, we are aware that there are availability issues with GP appointments and for that we are sorry. We appreciate it can be frustrating and inconvenient when the appointments are fully booked. Kind regards Carly Widziernikow Practice Manager
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Review titled Poor practice.
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 20 March 2023
Obviously they don't take mental health seriously, took over 3 weeks to get an appointment, then I wasn't seen due to system failures...to be honest I can't be bothered to go through the hassle of trying to make another appointment because the stress would tip me over the edge and smash my phone having to listen to that music for 40 minutes only to be told to phone back at 8am tomorrow. I don't think the practice can cope with the amount of patients it's took on and also being a hub for other practices, it's all about the money. I will leave the practice and go to another one and then I'll probably be sent to littlewick quicker than if I tried to make an appointment.
Visited March 2023
Review titled Littlewick Medical Centre
Replied on 18 May 2023
Dear Patient Thank you for taking the time to write a review for the surgery. I am sorry to hear that it has been difficult to arrange an appointment. We know that around 1 in 4 adults in the UK are affected by a mental health problem each year and understand that mental health issues are as important as physical health issues. Your comment regarding the practice being unable to cope with the amount of patients isn't reflective of the situation. The ratio of appointments we offer to patients is within the usual range for a GP practice. With regards to the hub, I think you are referring to the On Day Service which is a same day service for all Erewash registered patients with appointments available for same day acute problems. This service isn't run by Littlewick, we just provide the rooms for the service to use. We are fortunate in Derby to have a dedicated Mental Health helpline which is available 24 hours a day. You can contact them on 0800 028 0077 if you need help. There are also talking therapy services available locally which you can self refer to. You can find the details of these on our website. If you wanted me to investigate the full details of your complaint, please email the complaint to ddicb.littlewick.letters@nhs.net Kind regards Carly Widziernikow Practice Manager
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Review titled Brilliant surgery
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by d Smith - Posted on 24 March 2023
As a family we have had to use this surgery several times in the last 3 months, every time my query has been dealt with quickly and efficiently and have never had a problem getting an appointment. There is a bit of a wait on the phone sometimes but the queuing system advising of your place in the queue is helpful and I fully understand how stretched and pressured it must be. From myself and my family thank you for the fabulous job you do.
Visited March 2023
Review titled Littlewick Medical Centre
Replied on 18 May 2023
Dear Patient Thank you for taking the time to leave a review for us. I am really pleased to hear your experience of care with the surgery has been positive. I will share this with the rest of the Littlewick team as it is lovely to hear that their efforts and hard work make a difference. Kind regards Carly Widziernikow Practice Manager
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Review titled It beggars belief
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 03 March 2023
I spent 20 minutes waiting to get through on the phone, only to be told they weren't taking routine appointments and ring back next week! This was after I was advised earlier in the week to call today.
Visited March 2023
Review titled Littlewick Medical Centre
Replied on 06 March 2023
Dear patient Thank you for taking the time to write a review for the surgery. I am sorry that it was difficult to get through to the surgery. We have had clinician sickness absence which impacted on the availability of routine appointments. We appreciate this is frustrating and inconvenient for patients and I am genuinely sorry this was the case. Kind regards Carly Widziernikow Practice Manager
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Review titled Impossible to get an appointment
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Jayne Lay - Posted on 09 February 2023
I rang the surgery to get an appointment to see the doctor about an ongoing condition because my medication was no longer working. I was told to try an over the counter medication and even though I know it wasn't that I did it and I was no better. I rang again today and after being on hold for 80 minutes I was told that the appointments were for emergency only, and I had to ring another day for an on the day appointment , even though I had been in a lot of discomfort for 2 weeks. How can I ring for an appointment when it takes so long to get through even when you ring at 8 am and then all the appointments have gone. It's a joke.
Visited February 2023
Review titled Littlewick Medical Centre
Replied on 09 February 2023
Dear Jayne Thankyou for taking the time to write a review. If you want to email details of the issues you experienced I am happy to look into the matter for you. The email address is ddicb.littlewick.letters@nhs.net I apologise for the difficulty getting through to us on the telephone, this morning we had over 1000 people trying to phone into the surgery and the reception team are doing their best to answer each call as quickly, efficiently and safely as possible. Kind regards Carly Widziernikow Practice Manager