New River Health - Ratings and reviews
Reviews
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Review titled Never Answer the Phone
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Karen Kingston - Posted on 05 April 2024
For the last month I have had to physically go into the surgery to make appointments as I spend my life on hold. I have been on hold today for an hour only to get to my turn and be hung up on. It’s really appalling customer service. I went back in the queue but haven’t moved for 30 minutes. When you eventually see one of the medical team they are excellent but I shouldn’t have to physically go into the surgery just to make an appointment.
Visited April 2024
Review titled New River Health
Replied on 09 April 2024
Dear Mrs Kingston I am sorry to hear that you have had a bad experience with New River Health and your annoyance with the delay in phone answering. During March we had just over 10,000 phone calls and our average wait time is just under 15 minutes. However I do appreciate that at certain times of the day and week this will probably be a lot longer. We do have a call back facility on our phones at busy times to save patients hanging on. We are also encouraging patients to use our E consult system to contact the GP for routine or urgent appointments. Again this saves time waiting on the phone and surgery usually get back to you within a couple of hours of receipt letting you know the outcome of our triage. I am pleased to hear that when you do get through the door that your feedback on our medical team is an exemplary one.
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Review titled Treatment of Elderly Patients
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 23 April 2024
My father has Dementia and is unable to travel to the surgery. on the 13th March my Mum who is my dad's carer tried to get someone out to see him as he was very wheezy. She was told by the receptionist that the doctor would ring them first. The call never came and it took 3 further days before they got a phone call and even then no one came out to see him they simply prescribed inhalers. I would not recommend this practise even to my worst enemy. No sympathy or empathy for their elderly patients at all.
Visited March 2024
Review titled New River Health
Replied on 23 April 2024
I am so sorry to hear that you have had this experience at the surgery. I would appreciate it if you could contact me directly with your details, as I would like to take a look further into this and explore what happened. Please contact the surgery and say the Practice Manager as asked for your parents details. Thank you
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Review titled False advice
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Yaprak Akbulut - Posted on 29 March 2024
I have just moved to Hertford and registered with this gp. I found out that I am pregnant and called them to ask if I should see a doctor or gp. I was told by the receptionist that I don't need any appointments with them. I should find a maternity ward of my preference and that my first scan would be at 16 weeks! After doing some research It clearly states on the NHS website that “see a midwife or gp as soon as you find out you are pregnant”, this is so they can book your pregnancy care and make sure you get all the information you need to have a healthy pregnancy.” Also says, “your first appointment with a midwife should happen before your 10 weeks pregnant.” So much for terrible and misleading information all in my first experience with the surgery.
Visited March 2024
Review titled New River Health
Replied on 03 April 2024
Dear Mrs Akbulut I am sorry to hear that you have not had a great experience at New River Health. I have listened to the call you made into the surgery and the receptionist to an extent was right in what she informed you. You do not need to see a GP when you find out you are pregnant. You complete a referral form - usually called an early bird referral form once you have decided which hospital you would like your maternity care to be at. Once this is completed the hospital arrange an appointment for you to attend there to have tests and to normally see the hospital midwife around 10 weeks. You then have your first appointment with the community midwife attached to the surgery at 16 weeks and thereafter continuing see them until birth. I can see that this was not clearly explained to patients on our website and your complaint has given me a chance to address this to make it more clearer for first time mums. Please accept my congratulations on your pregnancy. Sorry this wasnt explained in more detail when you contacted us. If you wish to discuss further please do not hesitate to contact me. Karen Cassell - Practice Manager
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Review titled Really good practice
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 09 February 2024
I manly visit the nurses for any of my treatments but overall I never have a problem getting an appointment, reception is helpful..nurses amazing. Econsult works great also. I was worried when I had to change docs when we moved but I didn’t need to.
Visited February 2024
Review titled New River Health
Replied on 17 February 2024
Many thanks for your positive comments. I will pass this back to the nurses and the staff who always work hard to provide great service to our patients. Great also to hear your comments regarding our E consult service,
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Review titled Doesn't care
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Lucy King - Posted on 18 January 2024
Had phone appointment with Dr and was given a prescription for pain relief which was needed urgently. Prescription not given until the next day. Had no sleep due to bad pain. It feels like they just don't really care.
Visited January 2024
Review titled New River Health
Replied on 22 January 2024
HI Lucy I am sorry to hear about your experience in receiving pain relief care. I have looked into your records and can see that you had a discussion with one of our remote Advanced Care Practitioners. We will not be using this clinician from the beginning of February for various reasons, but the main one was that they had issues with prescribing and had to send to one of our GPs for signature, hence why there was a delay in her medication being dispensed. This will not happen again and am sorry you had to wait this length of time in pain.
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Review titled Fantastic lead nurse
Rated 4 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 19 December 2023
I am actually registered at another practice, but have been sent on a number of occasions with my two boys for fevers and eye infections. I just wanted to say how impressed I have been with who I believe is the lead nurse here. I have taken both my boys to see her and have visited in person and spoke on the phone. She has an amazing manner with the children and is both professional and friendly. It’s great to see someone who is positive and enthusiastic about their work and it would be great to see some of the doctors share her passion and kindness.
Visited December 2023
Review titled New River Health
Replied on 20 December 2023
Thank you very much for your positive comments. I will pass these onto the nurse in question We are currently housing the minor illness hub for the local Hertford Primary Care Trust and appreciate your feedback on the staff working in this service.
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Review titled Caring, professional, welcoming
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Jolita - Posted on 08 November 2023
I truly appreciate everyone working for this GP Surgery. People are kind, helpful, patient, knowledgeable, approachable, professional. Highly recommended.
Visited November 2023
Review titled New River Health
Replied on 09 November 2023
Many thanks for your comments, it is much appreciated and I will share this with our clinical and administrative staff
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Review titled Great nurse, made me at ease
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Hannah - Posted on 31 August 2023
I had my first smear booked post child birth and the nurse was nothing but kind and caring, Thankyou!
Visited August 2023
Review titled New River Health
Replied on 04 September 2023
Dear Hannah Many thanks for your positive posting and I will pass your complimentary comments onto our nurse
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Review titled Use of text messages
Rated 3 stars out of 5
by DPateman - Posted on 11 July 2023
I have asked numerous times not to send me text messages which lead to a site which is not new river. I was assured that these would stop but yet again today I recieved another. I am quite tech savy but with numerous spam/scams I feel this could leave some of your more vulnerable patients open to feeling it is OK to open dubious text messages. What happen to letters?
Visited July 2023
Review titled New River Health
Replied on 12 July 2023
Dear Mr Pateman I would just like to reassure that these are sent from the GP surgery. They are called an Accurx florey and they ask for various types of medical information like BP reading or answering a questionnaire. When these get completed by patients all that information goes straight into your record. If you would prefer to give us that information via email or letter, we are still happy to accept this also (but will need a member of staff to input). Many thanks for your enquiry
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Review titled Terrible
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Phillip Gill - Posted on 29 June 2023
I was called while driving at 14:22 29/06/2023 twenty five minutes later when I arrived home, I called back only to find the surgery closed for staff. I found last week I may have tumour so thinking about this all week and thinking this is why surgery called how do you think I feel about the service they are offering. I have to now wait another 3 hours till they reopen. Get the training done out of hours when it does not affect patients. Now I’ll ring dead on 17:30 and be in 30 long queue. Also second timed I’ve complained about the service there lately and nothing came of that, as will happen again with this.
Visited June 2023
Review titled New River Health
Replied on 25 July 2023
Dear Mr Gill I am sorry to hear that you called back on a day that our phone lines were closed in the afternoon for training. The voicemail should have explained this and your would have been prepared to have called back after 5.30. It is not just our surgery that is closed on this occasion, the training events cover all GP surgeries in the East Herts area. I agree when you are trying to get through to speak a GP this can be frustrating. We have advertised the future closing dates on our website. I will take your suggestion of doing this training events outside of core GP hours with our Integrated Commissioning Board. I can see that we have contacted you regarding your bloods and the GP has referred you to the hospital and you should have got an appointment by now. I cannot see that you have complained previously, but not sure if you did this via email or paper. We do usually respond within 28 days of a patient making a complaint