Sandgate Road
180 Sandgate Road, Folkestone, Kent, CT20 2HNContact details and opening times
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Reviews
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Review titled Terrible practice
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 16 August 2023
Always used to get through to someone even if you couldn't cLl at 8am but they're absolutely dire now. You will sit on hold for an hour just to be told there are no appointments left for the day and to call back. Been trying for weeks now. Their e-consult permanently has the message that it's full for the day too, before 8am, at 8am or 30 seconds after. It's ridiculous. The biggest joke of all is their website advertises they are taking on new patients when they can't even deal with the ones they have. Apparently they have taken on the people staying in the army barracks too, which explains alot. The doctors are great, you just can't be seen for love nor money and just get told to go to the walk in centre or the hospital instead. It's beyond a joke.
Visited August 2023
Sandgate Road has not yet replied.
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Review titled Appointments nightmare
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Susan Seager - Posted on 14 August 2023
I've been trying for weeks to get an appointment. I went to the surgery in person but was told to phone. Like hundreds of others I joined the endless queue on the phone without success. I joined Patient Access to get an online appointment but discovered that this surgery does not provide that. After many attempts, I was thrilled to get on to the e-consultation site. Having filled in all the details, the site in effect told me my symptoms were too serious to be dealt with by e-consultation and that I must see a doctor!!!! It said that by ending the e-consultation I was accepting that none of what I had filled in would be sent to the surgery and that I had to make an appointment to see a doctor. It was too late by then to join the impossible phone queue. It is like a Kafka nightmare getting an appointment at this surgery. I will probaly have to go to the walk-in--how does that help the NHS? We are always told it is vital to catch illness early but GPs are the gatekeepers and it is impossible even to see one. If patients ever get to see a doctor, their condition will be far worse due to the extreme delay. Again, how does that help pressures on the NHS? [The contact I have had with the nurse and others at the surgery has been good.]
Visited August 2023
Sandgate Road has not yet replied.
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Review titled Awful
Rated 1 star out of 5
by I. Taylor - Posted on 11 July 2023
Can't get an appointment , have been trying for the last 3 months. Have been told to ring at 8am every morning, which I told the receptionist that I had been, to which she replied 'you and hundreds of others and that's the problem.' No care, no appointments left at 8am in the morning, when I ring, on the dot. E consults never available at 8am. It's a sick joke and dangerous quite frankly.
Visited July 2023
Sandgate Road has not yet replied.
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Review titled Please fix your repeat prescription service.
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 07 October 2023
I handed my repeat prescription request form to a member of staff at the surgery on Saturday 30, September. They thought I was there for the flu vaccination, but insisted on taking the form when I said I was not and told me that they would get it to the right person for approval (it’s a controlled drug and the form clearly states whose approval is needed). Today (Saturday, 7 October), my pharmacist told me that the prescription had not been received. I went to your surgery where your receptionist confirmed that there was no record of the form being handed in. And as it's a controlled drug, there is nothing they can do until Monday. This is not my first incident. Over a little more than one year (not counting today's incident), the form has been left with reception and mislaid, left in the drop-off box and mislaid, or put on someone's desk and forgotten. When needed, your GPs and nurses have always treated me and my children with compassion, patience, and professionalism. Although, I haven't seen a doctor in years I hope that this is still the case. However, I have no confidence in your practice management. Your receptionist also suggested that I call 111 and try to obtain a short-term emergency supply. However, my pharmacist told that this cannot be done without a prescription from the surgery. I'll survive until Monday when I will check that it has been approved and passed over. Then I will go back to handing my request form to the receptionist personally every month, checking the next day and every subsequent day until I'm told that it has been approved / processed, and then asking my pharmacist to confirm that this has happened. Because I am certain that unless you change the way you manage repeat prescriptions, this will happen again.
Visited July 2023
Sandgate Road has not yet replied.
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Review titled Terrible e consulting
Rated 4 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 07 June 2023
I have at the recommendation of the GP surgery tried for 5 days to book an e consultation but every single day when I log on between 7:55 and 8 15 am it says all appointments are booked How can that be? Do these app actually exist as I do not know anyone who has successfully got one
Visited June 2023
Sandgate Road has not yet replied.
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Review titled Shortage of Doctors/Staff
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 28 June 2023
Until this surgery appoints more doctors /staff there will be no changes to the awful service we are all experiencing. I’ve been told only 2 doctors at practice .
Visited June 2023
Sandgate Road has not yet replied.
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Review titled Can I get my prescription?
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Sarah Bloom - Posted on 19 July 2023
Prescriptions are not for fun. I need my medication. Week after week I come in to the surgery, I fill in the forms, I phone the surgery, I check with the pharmacy...no prescription! The number of times I have been told it has been lost. Today I am out of my medication and the prescription is supposed to be with the pharmacy today, but, no prescription! And Wednesday is surgery training day, I have no way to contact the surgery to ask what has happened to my medication. Prescriptions are not for fun, they are needed medication. When the surgery fails to provide the prescription it causes complications for the patient. Please resolve the constant problems with creating and delivering prescriptions.
Visited June 2023
Sandgate Road has not yet replied.
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Review titled Appalling waste of tax payer's money
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 06 June 2023
I registered Folkestone Sandgate Rd surgery in 2020. I have not been able to book an appointment with a GP since. Their standard play is to send people to the Folkestone Victoria walk-in service. I told the walk-in attendant that "my surgery" sent me there and the attendant complained that is all they do. Why does the surgery pay for a "receptionist" that can't book appointments? The walk-in sent me back to the surgery as a I need a referral for a specialist. So I am doomed.
Visited June 2023
Sandgate Road has not yet replied.
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Review titled e-consult doesn't work
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Neil Bailey - Posted on 11 May 2023
Having had constant bad service from the useless phone system I tried to use the e- consult facility this morning. I opened the page at exactly 8am but by the time I had tried to login via my NHS password the website informed me that all e-consults had been booked. I have no faith whatsoever in this system. I have no complaints about the doctors or nursing staff/advanced practitioners at this surgery but the process of gaining access to them is lamentable. The practice manager has told me via email that they are trying to refine the booking system but it is taking too long. The recorded messages are infuriating and too repetitive. To sum it up I am giving up today and putting up with my symptoms until I can face trying yet again to get through.
Visited May 2023
Sandgate Road has not yet replied.
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Review titled How did it all go wrong?
Rated 1 star out of 5
by AJ Groom - Posted on 20 June 2023
I have been a patient here for 55 years, and for 50 years I could not speak highly enough of the quality service from doctors, nurses, and back-up staff. However since Covid the place seems to have collapsed into a complete shambles. Prior to Covid there was a practice manager who was always very helpful and available if there was any problem. It is now a near impossibility to see a doctor, and the place now seems organised that it is difficult to even make contact with someone. I have spent many hours on the end of a telephone without success, as have so many other patients reporting on this website. Recently I wanted to contact my diabetic nurse to ask about test strips. On phoning I think I was 19th in the queue, so I came across a little known email address for the surgery - it is so secretive that I could not see it on their website. Using this address, I sent an email asking for the test strips, and for the email to be forwarded to the relevant nurse. I got an anonymous response stating "Our procedures have changed and we are no longer able to accept emails requesting appointments or clinical advice. Please contact the surgery by e-consultation or by telephone...". I replied that as I was not seeking an appointment or clinical advice was my email forwarded to the diabetic nurse? I did not get an answer, so I sent another email. Still no response! My feeling is that this once-great practice is now run entirely for the benefit of the staff. The main exception is the hard working nurses who were there in the worst time of Covid, unlike the doctors who seem to disappear into near invisibility and have remained so. My wife and I are so fed up with Sandgate Road surgery that we have now quit and registered with another local practice
Visited May 2023
Sandgate Road has not yet replied.