Reviews
Hopeless
Luckily I am not a patient here and purely advocate on behalf of a patient but the treatment that I have witnessed at this surgery left alot to be admired! Rather than focusing so much time and effort on a system upgrade, I think it would be more beneficial for this doctors surgery to focus on retraining their reception team. Considering they are the first point of contact for mentally and physically unwell patients, basic customer service skills are non existant, let alone any sort of manners or empathy for those in need. Rather than being pro active and ready to help, they are dismissive and uncooperative. For some mentally ill patients, having the courage to make that first call to the doctor to seek some help is such a huge and scary step to make, it's therefore imperative that the first person they speak too has the ability to make them feel safe and supported, not shut down, ignored and made to feel a burden. This initial contact could be the difference between life and death for some one suffering from suicidal tendencies. I therefore feel it is important to provide honest feedback relating to the service I have witnessed, in the hope that some staff training is implemented at this surgery to give the receptionists the ability to learn how to show some dignity and respect to their patients. If this cannot be done I would highly recommend getting some new receptionists!
Most people complain about the long wait to have a call answered when you phone the surgery for an appointment. This has been a problem before the pandemic so I think it's a management problem. Frankly its not up to someone answering the phone to decide whether you can have a face to face appointment. It's time the surgery was open normally. and patients respected. At the moment we are not getting the service which is due. Something has to change at Billingshurst Surgery . Too often we are given excuses and nothing improves...now its the telephone systems, then the online systems etc.What next?
My father has been trying for 2 days consecutively to get a call back when he’s been told someone will phone him! He phoned again this evening as he didn’t receive a callback only to be told to phone back again tomorrow which would make it 3 days. No it’s not a emergency, however he does have various health conditions, the doctor even told him to phone them back a few weeks ago after some blood tests he phoned them back and is still waiting regarding that.
I have spent a total time of nearly 60 minutes to get a reply to my phone calls, this includes hanging on and being told that my call would be answered shortly for 20 minutes and the rest of the time dialling and re-dialling before I got into the queue system. This is really not good enough in this day and age.
I found the receptionists I spoke to rather unhelpful to say the least - to be told that "these things happen" is not helpful when the problem is nothing to do with me. I really did not have much faith that my request would be dealt with. Perhaps customer service training would be sensible, but the surgery would probably be closed for a week to enable this.
Resources
Short link to review Billingshurst Surgery: http://iwgc.net/ejhn8