STAMFORD HILL GROUP PRACTICE - Ratings and reviews
Reviews
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Review titled Appointment availability atrocious.
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 15 November 2022
Drs here are good. But app system is absolutely rubbish. None available to book through automated, online or by telephone. I’ve been online at 8 am to try and get an app, always just says “non available”. You can’t book through automated system as it comes up with pretty much the same message as above. And by the time you try and get through by phone, after waiting for a long time, all the apps have been taken. I’ve tried, on numerous occasions, on consecutive days and at different times, all options to try and book an app, I have the same problem and it’s proving impossible! Because of this I’m actually thinking of changing practice, which is such a shame. As I mentioned earlier, the Drs themselves are very good. Can i also suggest that you make it possible to advance book apps (up to two weeks ahead) in addition to the next day ones. This would be really useful for people who don’t need one straight away.
Visited October 2022
Review titled STAMFORD HILL GROUP PRACTICE
Replied on 21 November 2022
Dear Sir or Madam Thank you for getting in touch with us and I am aware that patients have been having difficulties in getting both online and automated appointments on our system. In recent months and weeks in particular we have had an increasing demand and request for online and automated appointments with patients preferring to book in this way. This is quite new for the practice as previously patients had preferred to call in and the reason that the messages come up that you refer to, is because the online and automated appointments have already been taken. We are in the process of looking at our online and automated appointments to increase availability for patients and hope in the coming days to have more appointments available to book in this way. We are also about to send out a patient satisfaction survey to a proportion of our patients to see what the preferred way of booking appointments is, as certainly the current feedback is quite different to what we have had before. Regarding pre-bookable appointments, this is something that we used to offer here but we found for various reasons they did not work well for the patients or the practice however we do have appointments available on a Sunday in our enhanced access clinics and if a patient calls in with a matter that can wait a few days, we can offer an appointment on a Sunday. If you would like to discuss this matter any further then please do contact me at the surgery. Kind regards Tania Fidler (Practice Manager)
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Review titled Frustrating experiences
by shudderqs64 - Posted on 25 November 2022
Difficult to book appointments, long ques due to appointments being offered on the day only. Often queue number 38-39 roughly 1 hr, sometimes the call gets disconnected. Had to go the practice 3 times to collect 1 form which the GP was supposed to leave for me. Old school practice no online appointment booking. Doctors I have seen are okay, as well as the paramedic. Receptionists- some of them nice, some of them rude. After my previous GP practice, this one is a big disappointment.
Visited October 2022
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Review titled STAMFORD HILL GROUP PRACTICE
Replied on 28 November 2022
Dear Sir or Madam I am sorry that you have been experiencing difficulties in getting through to obtain an appointment. We do have pre-bookable appointments available every day in advance, for the next day both online and on our automated system however they are very popular and are booked very quickly. Recent patient feedback has requested more online appointments to be made available and we are in the process of increasing the availability of these. Our call queue does take up to 50 people, which was increased from 20 earlier this year as patient's fed back that they wanted to have the option to queue or not. We do monitor the call queue all day every day and I have to say with the exception of the odd day since the winter season has started, we are not seeing high numbers of patients waiting in the queue and this has been the case for several months. We do also ensure we have the maximum amount of staff answering the telephones at peak times and we do let patients know via a message if we are experiencing staff shortages on any particular day. I would like the opportunity to discuss with you the points you have raised about a form that you had to collect and the comments you made about the reception staff so that I can look at any improvements that we can make or any training that is needed for our team. If you would like to call me at the surgery then I would be happy to speak with you about these. Kind regards Tania Fidler (Practice Manager)
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Review titled Surgery Just Not Functioning
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Father of a Family - Posted on 20 July 2022
Impossible to get an appointment. You just need to call 20 times and say a bunch of lies to make it sound worse in order to possibly get a doctor to call you back and to decide over the phone.
Visited July 2022
STAMFORD HILL GROUP PRACTICE has not yet replied.
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Review titled Impossible to get an appointment
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 01 June 2022
Firstly I don’t usually call a doctor unless I really need to. I tried calling for an appointment today. At 8:10 the surgery phone line stated all appointments have gone. At 08:15 I called the automated advance 24 hour telephone consultation service and was told by the automated service that no appointments are left. I tried the online Patient access service yesterday and at 8am this morning and both times the online message said there are no appointment slots available at my GP practice. I called the surgery line to see if I could speak to a member of staff to maybe request an advance appointment- even if it’s in a weeks time ,but I was 19 in the queue ! Please note I am almost 60 and I just despair at the lack of any kind of support from this surgery. The reception staff always appear to be in a hurry and make you feel as if you are a nuisance so I’m even afraid to ask for any kind of assistance. Your staff need to be reminded that most of us have paid over 40 years of NHS payments and it’s not too much to ask to see a doctor from time to when it’s necessary especially at my age .
Visited May 2022
Review titled STAMFORD HILL GROUP PRACTICE
Replied on 06 June 2022
Thank you for your email and I am sorry that you are finding it difficult to get an appointment however at the moment the demand for appointments is very high and we are short staffed with a lack of doctors due to a number of our doctors relocating outside of London, since Covid. We are working hard to recruit new staff and to secure locums to cover the shortages. We do have a new salaried doctor starting with us in early July and are looking at new staffing groups to support our patients with their healthcare needs, such as now having a full time Practice Based Paramedic who joined us in March. When you called last Wednesday there were no advance appointments for 24 hours time because of the Jubilee Bank Holiday and the surgery not being open again until today, these appointments would not become available until yesterday (Sunday). I appreciate that all appointments are often gone shortly after 8am due to the demand and we put a message on the telephone to inform patients so that they do not have to hang on the line, only to be then told there are no appointments available. The feedback from our patients is that most patients prefer this option. We do have a call queue of up to 40 people waiting at any time. I appreciate that it is frustrating hanging on the line but are staff are working as hard as they can to answer calls as quickly as possible and we do have additional staff answering the phones when call volumes are at their highest such as at 8am. I am sorry that you feel the reception staff are always trying to hurry you and I have recently been listening to calls with staff to give further training and to support them. On the telephone some conversations can come across as rushed, I agree but the staff also feel under pressure to get onto the next call so we are trying to train and support staff to get a happy balance of being efficient whilst listening to patients concerns. Our reception staff are not the people making decisions about whether patients can have an appointment or not and once all of the telephone consultations have gone for the day, the reception staff are working closely with the duty doctor who is based with the reception team and who will make decisions about a patients needs and the urgency of the medical matter and then the receptionist will relay this to the patient, so any clinical decision is made by a doctor. I hope my response goes some way to explain the current situation here and of course I am happy to discuss this further if you would like to speak with me at the practice. Tania Fidler, Practice Manager
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Review titled Really annoying!
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 22 November 2022
I selected 'extremely unlikely' but then I changed it to 'unlikely' as I think it's not fair for the Doctors there who are very good. Though, the reception staff are highly impolite and discourteous. As the other reviews indicate, their appointment system is rubbish and doesn't work then when I finally got an appointment, I had to wait in a long queue which stretched till the street. When I finally arrived at the reception desk I was told off that I'm a half an hour late, so I told the receptionist that I was on time yet the queue was so long, but she just dismissed me that it's my fault and I'm the one who is late, I asked her to call the Doctor to hear if he can still see me then, so she so "generously" agreed to make this call after me begging her several times, she called the Doctor and told him "I have a patient who is a half an hour late and he wants to know if you could see him" when I heard her saying this I became very irritated and hurt, I arrived punctually but she was very slow (to put it nice) with the other patients which caused that till I arrived at the front of the queue the time had already passed, so I politely interrupted her and told that she should please say to the Doctor that I was on time but the queue was long but she just ignored me, when repeated my request a few more times she finally gave in and told for the Doctor the truth, but not before giving me a rude and dismissive look of irksome and she said "the patient says that he was on time" as if pressing that this is only what I'm claiming but really it's a lie and I only arrived then. The Doctor apologised that he needs to go to a Doctors meeting, but he was ready to rearrange another appointment for that afternoon, which I was grateful for. When I asked the receptionist after her call with the Doctor why she was acting so impolite and dishonestly she just ignored me. I have no problem with the waiting time, although it is disturbing, it's acceptable. I also don't have a problem with the Doctor having a meeting and not being able to see me then, although it was also disturbing and time-consuming, but these things happen and are at times unpredictable, but what I'm disturbed at what I can't forgo is the receptionists very unprofessional way of conduct, she treated me as second class and as a lier. This is only one story and an example of many other bad experiences I've had with this practice. A simple solution would be, a system I saw at other practices, where patients with pre-scheduled appointments walk into the practice and register their arrival on a screen which notifies the doctor about the patient's arrival, then, when the doctor is ready to see the patient an overhead screen will beep and show patients name and where the patient has to go, i.e. Mr John Smith please go to room number 1, this makes admissions and registration much smoother and efficient, and fills the staff shortage gap by far.
Visited May 2022
Review titled STAMFORD HILL GROUP PRACTICE
Replied on 28 November 2022
Dear Sir I am sorry to read of your experience with the practice and that you found the reception staff impolite, discourteous and unprofessional and that it was dismissed that you had been in a long queue and that is why you were late for your appointment. I would like the opportunity to discuss this with you further and if you are able to call into the surgery by phone or in person to speak with me, then it will allow me to discuss this with the receptionist involved and see if there is further support or training that we can give. You mention that the appointment system does not work and again for my own clarity it would be good to discuss this with you to see if there is anything in particular that needs addressing. With regards to the self check in screen, we have had one on order since August 2022 with the manufacturer and we were told it would take approximately three months. On chasing two weeks ago we have been informed that due to global issues in sourcing IT parts they cannot currently give is an installation/delivery date. Unfortunately this system is linked to our patient database so we will have to wait for this to arrive but we are hoping that this will reduce queue's in the practice. If you do have the opportunity to speak with me directly this would be much appreciated and would help me to give any additional support to the reception staff. Kind regards Tania Fidler (Practice Manager)
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