Northdown Surgery

After involvement in a car accident 2 years ago I have ongoing symptoms associated with the worsening of my recovery after a car accident. I was seen by a specialist and advised to see my GP for various follow up tests etc. I then received a letter from the GP a few months ago asking me to make an appointment. I have found it very hard to get a response via Anima and over the phone the receptionists unhelpfully just tell me to keep trying. I last made an anima request on the 6th May and the status is still listed as 'waiting for surgery's response.' I've tried to email a diagnostic report from a psychiatrist to the surgery as I was advised. I then chased this several times to finally get a blunt response back saying the public are not allowed to email. I then asked the pyschiatrist to email the report over instead of me which she did and copied me in however the surgery still didn't reply. The communication is terrible and there is an air of completely unecessary authority (very much and us and them/patients are seen as and treated as below staff rather than equals). There needs to be some consideration for the fact that people have different communcation needs, not everyone can use online systems and many struggle with the long waits and rude attitude of the staff, especially those with additional needs. Please treat us like people worthy of using the service we are all paying for rather than as if we should be grateful for whatever we get given. Please train your staff to not be so rude and aggressive, if we as patients spoke to staff like that I'm sure we'd be getting written warnings and being removed from the surgery etc.

I have been trying to make a follow up appointment with a specific GP requested by QEQM since yesterday evening .The Receptionist was quite arrogant and wasn’t interested in what I had to say .She told me to ring back today ( Monday 22nd Sept ) after 9 am, as I am unable to use ANIMA.. I have been trying to get in touch with the Surgery since 9.15 this morning at no 10 in the queue with your automated System ..I chose to wait in the system .. Thats was until 10.15 to be told I was no 1 in the system ..I waited until 10.35 still being told I was still no 1 in the queue .so clicking on 1 ..where I lost connection altogether and put me back to no 7 in the queue when I tried again .I am now thinking how many other Patients were no 1 in the queue at the same time as me It is now 10.55 am and I have given up ! I have anxiety issues and this has made it worse ! My Husband is now making his way to the Surgery to make the f/up Appointment with DR MARKS . I hope he gets a better result than I did . Thank you

this place is 100% improvement on my last surgery .now i feel like my respiratory problems are going to get a lot better.so far each and every staff member has been good.

Excellent service

Final review, I can safely say this is one of the worse surgeries in Kent. As someone with Aspergers, anxiety and depression, me and my family have been let down by multiple mistakes time and time again over the time of being here. I would not recommend this surgery for anyone with mental health problems, you will be made to jump through hoops, chasing up referrals and finding out they have not been done, you will be neglected, you will be made to backed into a corner and worsening of your mental health. I’ve had referrals to counsellors not being done, told they would be and months later finding out they where not done. Sadly, the main problem is the reception team and the admin staff, they are either not trained or simply do not care. Even after multiple times of bringing up the issues nothing is done and no improvement is made. Communication is not existent, the practice manager does not reply to you and will ignore you, they ignore MP’s letters, one member of staff does reply and try to help but sadly her team in the admin section are slowing her and the practice down. They are simply incapable of doing their jobs to a decent level. Today I did an anima, I wrote on the anima I have “No onset headaches” they phoned me, kindly got me an appointment in the QEQM, the appointment was cancelled as they told the QEQM “I have an onset headache” did they tell me it was cancelled, no. I had to go in and find this out but not only that my anima was reworded. Again, this is the admin team. My general surgery referral for a hernia that is causing me pain, I was told had been done. 7 months later I find out it was never done. It took an extra 2 weeks after it told them it wasn’t done to sort it. I’ve had ambulance crews go over due to them not helping me, only to be ignored or told by a certain person “I outrank the ambulance crew, I don’t have to do what they say” along with very inappropriate comments by a member of staff towards myself. The reception team decided to take it upon themselves even though they are NOT medically trained to ignore and refuse the request from the QEQM for my 1-year-old to be seen by our doctor after an A&E visit the day before, but not only that tell my wife to “use her mother instincts” instead of being seen by the GP as requested. I doubt the receptionist would want to put her name to this if it backfired and something happened to my daughter. Also, it is clear caring for children is also not a priority as is mental health. I think the risk they put patients is very concerning and I am sorry to have to write this review but your admin team and reception team really need to be looked at as I do not feel they are capable of the job roles they have, they put people and risk and cause further suffering due to the lack of capabilities. It’s worrying they are taking on more patients as they struggle with the ones they have and from speaking to other patients all of the above is very common & they do the least they can to fix it.

Saw a Doctor on the 12 of March to have a referral sent for general surgery as I'm in pain. Which he said he would do. 1st of October I find out it was never done, emailed the operations manager and the practice manager. No response from the practice manager. Operations manager got the secretaries to ring me, they confirmed it had not been done and won't speak to the doctor. 11th of October no response from anyone to our emails to chase this up. This is now the 3rd time they have done this, not sending referrals.

This surgery will take medicines of your repeats without letting you know you need a review only way your know is when you check your repeats and see items are missing very badly run

I suffer with PTSD which is triggered by confrontation and currently have a suspected urine infection which needs urgent attention before it worsens. I was asked to supply a urine sample and went to the surgery to give the said sample at around 6pm. After I finished the sample I took it back to to reception in the sealed bag. The blonde receptionist started to arrogantly tell me she would not take it as it was not the next day. She was angry and extremely rude and triggered my anxiety to its limits. I am a Dt of Microbiology from Oxford University and know that if stored properly (in a fridge at 4°C) it the sample would be good for dipping tomorrow. I had no way of getting the sample to them in the morning due to other appointments for other conditions. The receptionist was getting angry and I did respond as I was treated. Your no abuse policy works both ways especially when the receptionist has no Microbiology training and has no idea of the patient’s medical problems. I left the sample with her and had to get out of the situation and need treatment or further instigation into the problem your policy could end up leading to a patient with no care and susceptible to sepsis. .

Refused my asthma medication, nearly killed me. Told me they sent referrals off to a respiratory clinic and ENT, they lied and never did. Asthma nurse ditched me and didn't follow up. Ambulance was called and they had to go over to speak to them to tell them they haven't given me the correct care and their response was we out rank the ambulance crew so we don't have to do what they say. Also gave me medication that I shouldn't be taking as they can make my condition worse and they only noticed this months later.

It's incredibly hard to get an appointment, the phone system is misleading in that it instructs you to call "after 10" to get an appointment. That's nonsense as even if you're calling at 10 you frequently can't get through before all appointments are gone. On previous appointments I've managed to get I've not even been seen by a GP but by a trainee nurse. Receptionists are rude and unhelpful and seem more interested in persuading you not to book an appointment than anything else. They also ask intrusive questions and get annoyed if you don't answer.. presumably as they;'re trying to triage you away from a doctor despite having no apparent medical training to do so.