Streatham Common Group Practice - Ratings and reviews
Reviews
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Review titled Poor surgery comms - restricts patient interaction
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous patient - Posted on 04 March 2024
Surgery communications appear to be designed to minimise and constrain patient interaction, primarily to reduce surgery workload. I wonder if account has been taken of any patient impact. Some examples - Surgery will communicate with you via one route, but won't accept replies via the same. Eg a text message will be sent by a GP or surgery admin, but to reply/follow up - you must either call and hold for 30-60 minutes or use the website. If you think using the website sounds like a flexible alternate. Think again, as you can only use the website for messages during surgery hours ie you're actively prevented from responding to / sending a message outside of those hours. Responses to website messages can then take several days to arrive. Another example from a colleague who's also registered shows that GPs and Surgery Admin can be disjointed. They requested an appointment for a telephone consultation, and whilst waiting some time for confirmation of date/ time - received a text from the GP asking them to rebook as they'd missed their consultation call at the appointed time. Checked for a missed text or email re an appointment slot and there's nothing. My opinion is that these and other similar examples will undoubtedly impact negatively on healthcare outcomes at least for some patients. My advice - only use this surgery if you're a persistent person by nature. Even then you should be willing to wait longer than you'd normally expect, for any step of your treatment that involves communicating with the surgery.
Visited March 2024
Review titled Streatham Common Group Practice
Replied on 06 March 2024
Dear Patient, Thank you for taking the time to write this feedback, which we will definitely take into consideration when reviewing our services. We appreciate that communication can be difficult and that mixed messages are sometimes sent. We are constantly reviewing our processes to reduce these. Our online consultation and website platforms are decided by the NHS and they have recently instigated a change in the provider which we are hoping will make it easier to submit an online consultation, and this can also now be completed through the NHS app. Regarding two way communication, this is a tricky area. Responses to individual messages return to the sender rather than a generic inbox. For safety reasons we do not wish messages to return to a member of staff who may not be there on that day as this is a clinical risk. Although we ask patients not to return messages that might be dangerous, not all patients understand this and we have previously received urgent clinical information. If this were to go into an individual inbox for a clinician who is on annual leave/other absence this is unsafe. We appreciate this may be inconvenient but we have to make sure the service is safe as a priority. All online communication should be routine and patients are asked to declare this at the point of submission. Urgent issues should be dealt with by phone or 111. We are aware that our phone call times can be long at popular times, or when we are experiencing staff sickness. We are constantly monitoring performance in this area and work hard to keep call times to as short a time as possible. As online communication is non urgent it is then triaged and allocated to an appointment slot for review. The patient is then informed of this time by text or email. We have received feedback that patients sometimes don't get the texts. The surgery receive messages of delivery and these are recorded in the medical record. This situation seems to be outside of our control and we can only apologise. Online communication is only available during surgery opening hours. This is in part due to the sheer volume of requests received and our desire to not discriminate against patients who cannot access online services. These patients are often the most vulnerable or elderly and we wish to preserve equal access for them. This system allows us to allocate a number of appointments to online communication, and allow patients to access availability by the phone. Our patient participation group (PPG) works with us to develop services and improve communication. You may wish to consider joining this group to provide further feedback. Alternatively you are welcome to feedback further via our website. Streatham Common Practice
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Review titled very difficult to be seen or even replied to
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 29 January 2024
asked for seeing a doctor early December received and email pointing to a message that I would have a phone appointment at the end of December I was not called, I did receive another email with link to message asking for further info, which I sent. next email with linked message said I would be referred for a test did not receive any appointment, checked the NHS app and found a unspecified appointment for me requested by an unspecified GP. Now that appointment is not there, I don't know if there was ever one. The messages now have disappeared from the practice system. I sent another request via their web site, which says they replies withing 2 days, this was 8 days ago, no news. Now I am calling, 48 minutes and counting, I am third in the queue
Visited January 2024
Review titled Streatham Common Group Practice
Replied on 31 January 2024
Hello, we're very sorry to read your review. It seems as though there are a number of things to resolve in your case. Obviously we are unable to do this on this forum. We are very sorry for the delays on the web forms and phones in the last 2 weeks. We have had significant levels of staff sickness that have impacted on our service provision, despite employing temporary staff. We are hoping this will be resolved as soon as possible. Your form should be responded to shortly.
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Review titled Disappointed
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by David Owens - Posted on 17 October 2023
I phoned yesterday morning 16th October, I spoke to a receptionist and briefly told her my problem. I said in order to save seeing a Doctor a phone appointment would probably be okay. She told me there were no calls I could have today, but to go on the website and fill in the appropriate form. I have always praised the reception for their helpfulness, but my beef today is I wasn't offered an alternative date .
Visited October 2023
Review titled Streatham Common Group Practice
Replied on 21 December 2023
Dear Mr Owens, We are glad that you generally find the reception team to be helpful but apologise that we were unable to help on this occasion. We do offer pre-bookable phone calls though they tend to be booked for a couple of weeks ahead. Our online consultation forms can often be the best way to access help for a non urgent problem, as these are usually dealt with within a week. Please get in touch if you require further clarification on this and ask to speak to the reception team leader.
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Review titled Friendly practice
Rated 4 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 20 January 2023
When entering the reception the staff we helpful and smiled when engaging. They were happy to answer my questions and seemed happy in their workplace.
Visited January 2023
Review titled Streatham Common Group Practice
Replied on 21 December 2023
Dear Patient, Thank you so much for your feedback regarding the reception team. We will pass this on to the staff who will be very encouraged by your kind words.
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Review titled Great Doctors
Rated 3 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 26 July 2022
The doctors and good at this Practice. However a few of the reception staff let them down with their hostile attitude when speaking to patients which is downright rude. It seems to be the new ones they employ. Also important letters sent to this practice from Guys Hospital surgeons and consultants seem to get"lost" if sent in post or email at the surgery; its vital that correspondence is put on the patients file and not be "floating around somewhere"for weeks on end! Every time I've spoken to the doctors here the correspondence cannot be found from weeks before being sent out or emailed to them yet I've received them ok. Plus I trust the surgeons when they inform me they were sent to the Practice!
Visited July 2022
Review titled Streatham Common Group Practice
Replied on 21 December 2023
Dear Patient, We are sorry that we haven't been able to manage your letters in the way that you would expect. Most correspondence from the hospitals comes both electronically and in paper form and these need reconciling before being entered on the system. All letters are screened for urgent issues and prioritised on this basis. We appreciate there may be a delay in the letters being available to doctors during this process and we have since allocated extra staff to address this. We also often find that consultants believe the letters have been issued but that there is a hold up at the hospital's end with processing their dictations; or that a letter has been received by the patient before it has arrived at the surgery. It is unclear why this is but we are hoping this will improve with better record sharing between primary and secondary care. We are glad that you have found our doctors helpful and we hope we have improved the administrational side as well. Regarding reception staff we regularly train staff on how to answer the phones and deal with face to face patient care. This is an ongoing process and we suggest that if you have found a particular receptionist to be rude or unhelpful that you feedback directly to the practice via a feedback form on our website so that we can investigate this directly.
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Review titled repeat prescription problem
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by john victor smith - Posted on 18 June 2022
I went to the practice to find out what had happened to my repeat prescription. I was told it was now a 72 hour wait from 48. I asked some one to contact me, i gave my mobile number. No one contacted me or attempted to contact me. This is treating me with contempt and does not give me any confidence in this practice. A poor service to patients.
Visited June 2022
Review titled Streatham Common Group Practice
Replied on 21 December 2023
We are sorry that you found our system confusing and that you were unhappy with our service. Our prescription service changed to 72 hours in June 2022 so that all medications are screened by a pharmacist before they are reviewed by a doctor. We implemented this practice to improve safety and due to increasing numbers f repeat prescription requests. We are unfortunately unable to phone people to let them know when their prescription is ready due to the sheer volume of prescriptions we receive each day (between 100-150). We suggest talking to your local pharmacist who are often able to message you when your prescription is ready if they have your consent. Please do get in touch if you wish to discuss this further.
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Review titled Disgraceful admin staff but good doctors
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 07 June 2022
I have been coming to this doctors for at least 10 years and the level of service has dropped dramatically and this happened before Covid , it just so happens it has got worse after the pandemic too. The Admin staff seem to have no idea what they are doing . This is a family doctors for me , and many of us are having continuous problems with the admin team . From giving wrong appointments multiple times , to sending tests to the wrong places , not always calling back when they say they will, and just generally not doing their job . It’s unacceptable what patients have to deal with here .
Visited June 2022
Review titled Streatham Common Group Practice
Replied on 21 December 2023
Dear Patient, we are sorry that our service level has not met your expectations. It would be useful if you would provide us with some examples so that we can investigate this further- you can do this via a feedback form on our website.