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Written by a patient
4th June 2020


My experienced have been very mixed; Reception staff are rude, lack compassion and speak to patients as if they are an inconvenience to them. If they were in any kind of customer facing role, the majority of them would not have a job, however being as they service the public, they get away with acting this way. Doctors have been generally very good, Dr Pal in particular was very attentive and took time to explain all aspects of blood test results to provide a good understanding. However, there is one exception from a doctor who telephoned me who I did not get the name of (possible locum). He had very little interest in what I had to say and quickly dismissed the pain I was in by asking how old I was and if I was overweight. I was still talking at the end of the call when he said ‘call us back if it gets worse, bye’ and hung up the line. Whilst I appreciate doctors are very busy and he did ask questions, he did not recommend anything I could do to assist with the pain I was in and I ended up having to call back to the surgery and have another appointment anyway so any time saved by ending the call was wasted. Appointments are difficult to get unless you state it is an emergency which is odd because there is a separate option for this when you call. How you can decide what an emergency is as a layperson without any medical knowledge is a mystery to me. I don’t mind the triage service but it would be useful if there could at least be a window of time where the GP is likely to call. Overall a little compassion from the staff would go a long way to ease the tension felt by patients when trying to manage medical concerns.

Recommend
Involvement
Cleanliness
Staff
Appointment