Westbury Group Practice
White Horse Health Centre, Mane Way, Leigh Park, Westbury, Wiltshire, BA13 3FQContact details and opening times
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Reviews
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Review titled Prompt service .
Rated 4 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 04 September 2024
Rang at 8 on Monday waited 20mins. for call back then described my problems to understanding receptionist who asked me to call again at 8 next day. This I did and waited 45 mins on call back, my previous call had been recorded and I was duly offered an appointment at 9.40 which I attended. The doctor listened patiently to me prior to giving me a thorough examination, He was very reassuring and understood how I felt which made me relaxed and able to explain my concerns .
Visited September 2024
Review titled Westbury Group Practice
Replied on 05 September 2024
Dear Patient, Many thanks for taking the time offer your feedback. Wherever possible we do try to avoid asking patients to call back the next day. On occasion however, when we have absences in our clinical team, we do have to do this. I am pleased to hear that you were able to contact us again and that you were happy with the service we were ultimately able to provide. I wish you well. Best regards Craig Craig Massey Patient Communication Lead Westbury Group Practice
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Review titled Is this a doctors surgery?
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 23 July 2024
This surgery missed my husband's stroke! He was not worthy of seeing a doctor, and he was sent home by a nurse who insisted he come into the surgery whilst he was in a wheelchair and unable to walk and vomiting. She sent him home with vertigo. Why wasn't a duty doctor called at that time in the surgery. Certainly not a good surgery!
Visited July 2024
Westbury Group Practice has not yet replied.
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Review titled Poor service
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 23 July 2024
I'm in absolute agony and tried for almost 2 weeks to use the NHS app for online consultations but it was continuously unavailable. There was no communication sent out that this was no longer in use. In desperation I eventually phoned and was told to try the fractured "8am-impossible-rush-call-fail" or I could use the old Systmonline which I did. Got appointment for 30 working days later (6 weeks). UK avg waiting time for appointments longer than 28 days was 4.3% in 2023. In other words 93.6% of UK patients do not wait over 28 days. This clearly indicates this practice is not functioning optimally. Which is unfortunately what patients are experiencing. Even though we're told this practice takes 300+ calls each day, yet when we do attend an appointment there is almost no-one waiting to see a GP/technician. Just loads of empty seats to choose from. How can there be such a massive difference between what we see / experience and what your statistics show? What plans do you have in place to address the dreaded, ineffective and misleading "8am rush for appointments"? The surgery should also record all appointments, including those failed to be given to patients, to honestly assess the surgery's ability to meet the community's needs. Medical ethics should prevail. You'll probably find your daily calls will reduce if you do, as I assume most current calls will be 30 seconds long with the patient being denied an appointment as they're directed to phone the next morning.
Visited July 2024
Review titled Westbury Group Practice
Replied on 24 July 2024
Dear Patient, Thank you for taking the time to let us have your feedback. I am sorry to hear that you have experienced these difficulties recently; please accept my apologies for your upset. I cannot answer directly to you concerns but I am happy to offer the following broad points in response to your feedback. • The management and publication of information about the readiness or otherwise of the NHS app is the responsibility of NHS app team. • To have been in such pain for two weeks must have been extremely unpleasant. I am little surprised that you would leave it for two weeks whilst coping with that level pain. • We have recently extensively advertised that we are using a new online system which was available from 19th June 2024. We produced an article in the local paper, the Council has helped us with publicity, I have sent out over 10,000 SMS to patients and this information has been on the TV screens in the waiting room and on our website for several weeks. • We are trying to encourage those patients that can use online options to do so, thus freeing-up the telephones for those that do not. • Every request we receive for help is subject to a triage process which aims to ensure that we see those patients who have the most urgent clinical need first. Without your name I cannot detail exactly how your request was triaged and what reasoning was behind your appointment being booked 30 working days later. • The waiting room is by no means always full of patients. That does not at all mean that we are not busy; we have 30 consulting rooms which would doubtless all have had patients in them having their consultation. • The 8am rush for appointments in not a phenomenon associated with just the White Horse Health Centre; it is a challenge surgeries face throughout England. • You may have seen the publicity that we have recently produced regarding our new phone system which is being introduced next week. One of the benefits of this new system is that the patient can request a call-back rather than waiting in the telephone queue. • We are now telling very few patients to call back the next day. In the last few months we have located a duty doctor within the Reception which has helped t reduce the number of appointments need to be booked as, often, the duty doctor can provide an answer, or take a prescribing action for example, while the patient is still on the phone. This means that we have more appointments available for other patients to book who need to be seen or have a telephone call. I hope this has provided with some of the answers you require. I will be happy to take this matter further with you if you wish; I can be contacted on: bswicb.wgppatientvoice@hs.net Best regards Craig Craig Massey Patient communication Lead Westbury Group Practice
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Review titled Trainee gp completely useless and incompetent
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 28 March 2024
It was the surgery that messaged me to make a face to face appt re my heart condition. When arrived trainee gp had no idea why i was there. Looked at me as if i had dementia when told i didnt know why i had to have appt. Merely took blood pressure and then fobbed off when tried to discuss other issues possibly relating to heart medication such as excessive coughing. Told thats not what your here for today make an appt next week even though she admitted it could be related to heart meds. Trainee gp merely took blood pressure and heart rate something nurse coukd have done. But pointless as have cardiologist appt in 4 days anyway
Visited March 2024
Review titled Westbury Group Practice
Replied on 02 April 2024
Good morning, Thank you for taking the time to offer the surgery your feedback. I am sorry to hear that you felt your recent appointment was not satisfactory; please accept my apologies for any upset you felt. I would like the opportunity to investigate your concerns but, of course, I would need your details to do this. If you would like me to do this please can I suggest you email me at bswicb.wgppatientvoice@nhs.net. Please ensure you include your full name and address and date of birth in any email. Please also mark it for my attention. Best regards Craig Craig Massey Patient Communication Lead White Horse Health Centre
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Review titled Not a practice I would recommend
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 04 April 2023
You cannot book any sort of appointment in advance at this surgery. Even if you are elderly, have been suffering from a worrying symptom for weeks, and though you have tried self medicating it hasn't improved, you still cannot make an appointment. You have to ring first thing in the morning, sit in a queue and then be told at the end of a long wait that there are no appointments left and try again tomorrow. Even if you take th time to travel to the surgery you are stone walled by the reception team who, it seems, are qualified to decide whether you deserve to see a GP and will even suggest you see the pharmacist without having any idea of whether your symptoms are potentially life threating. Horrendous and ridiculous system. I hope people take them to the courts for negligence. Not all surgeries do this with many allowing those with non urgent but worrying symptoms being able to book ahead. Sad thing for those in Westbury is that this is the only practice - there is no alternative. This practice has always had the monopoly in Westbury, and it has simply got worse in the 40 plus years I have lived in the area. Thumbs down from me
Visited April 2023
Review titled Westbury Group Practice
Replied on 11 April 2023
Good morning, Thank you for taking the time to offer us your feedback; I am very sorry to learn of the difficulties you have experienced when contacting the surgery to book an appointment. The majority of our appointments are booked ’on the day’ but we are looking to increase the number of appointments we have for booking in advance, over the next few months. We have a finite resource for our appointments and so we are always trying to strike a balance between having appointments available for those who need care on the day, with having appointments available to book in the future. We have employed a number of new types of health care professional in the last several month’s including new clinical pharmacists, a Physicians Associate and an additional paramedic. These new staff members will be able to undertake work traditionally completed by the doctors and so free up the doctors up to offer more appointments. I am sorry that the phones are so busy, this is an indication of the very high levels of demand we have placed on our services; we receive between 300-500 calls every day. We are looking at new software to improve our online consultation process which we believe will contribute to fewer calls to our phone lines. The Reception team; as in many surgeries in England; will always aim to ensure that our patients get to see the appropriate health care professional. Many patients ask to see the doctor when this is not always required; it is important that we use our clinical resources as best we can, and this is just one part of what the Reception team do. One example of this is in our participation in the Community Pharmacy Referral scheme whereby patients with various specified symptoms can be safely referred by the practice to a pharmacist for their care. The Reception team have received in-depth training, and clear and frequently updated guidance from the senior clinical partner on how best to manage patients and their symptoms. This will include identification of ‘red flag’ symptoms which are those with the most clinical risk and so are those needing the most urgent care. Patients identifying with any of these symptoms will usually be given the highest priority. Please accept my apologies once again for any upset you have experienced recently. It is disappointing and upsetting however, to see that you feel it appropriate to encourage our patients to take us to court for negligence. I see no basis for this in your comments above. I will be happy to investigate your concerns further if you wish; I can be contacted via bswicb@wgppatientvoice@nhs.net Best regards Craig Craig Massey Patient Communication Lead Westbury Group Practice