Beversbrook Medical Centre

Hello there, I am sorry to hear that you have experienced problems using our Doctorlink service. I am pleased to hear that you found our minor illness nurse was nice and provided a professional standard of care. Whilst we do appreciate your frustration, in order to make sure that our minor illness nurses are seeing appropriate patients for their skills we require a summary of assessed needs prior to the appointment. We do encourage patients to use Doctorlink as this provides a comprehensive summary of your symptoms which we can use to book you appropriately if an appointment is needed. For more serious symptoms Doctorlink will also direct you to the most appropriate urgent care setting and this may be a hospital. If you do have problems using the Doctorlink service you can also contact NHS 111 who will be able to assess you and provide us with advice over the phone - they will also provide us with a summary so that if they feel you need to be seen in Practice we can use this to book you in to the most appropriate clinic to suit your health needs. We do operate a zero tolerance policy and have a duty to report any unpleasant behaviour, which will form part of your permanent health record. We do encourage patients to let us know when they feel we have let them down so that we can learn from our mistakes and look for improvement opportunities. Should you feel that the call handler you are speaking to is not meeting your expectations in future, please do ask for the call to be escalated to one of our Patient Services Managers who will be more than happy to help you with your concerns, explain the complaints procedure and use the event as a learning need for the whole team. If you would like to discuss this with me in more detail please do not hesitate to contact me at emmybutcher@nhs.net. Kindest regards, Emmy Butcher - Managing Partner

Hi there Thanks for your feedback and I am sorry to hear that you would have preferred a telephone triage system. We have tried this in the past but unfortunately, our patients didn't feel it was not in their best interests as it increased their waiting times for access to the most appropriate clinician. I am glad that upon completion of your Doctorlink summary we were able to arrange for you to see a clinician within four hours. The information you provide in the Doctorlink summary helps us to ensure you are seen in the most timely and efficient way possible. Please do use it again at the initial onset of symptoms as this helps us to make sure you obtain early treatment and also provides us with a clear picture of how your symptoms may progress. I am pleased to hear that the clinicians you saw were helpful and that you were able to obtain the treatment you needed swiftly. You may be interested to hear that we have a Patient Participation Group and would certainly encourage you to join. If you would like more information about our PPG or would like to speak to me further about your experience pleased do not hesitate to contact me at emmybutcher@nhs.net. Many thanks - Emmy Butcher, Managing Partner