Share review of Cathedral Medical Group

Cathedral Medical Group 2022-05-05 Person 1 5 0

I act as a advocate for one of you patients. I find the whole process of dealing iwth appointments a complete mess. Mostly the individual does not require energency appointments- what they need is a clear pathway to see their own GP at a pre-planned time and date whiuch can be booked with reasonable notice. They also need clear explanations of their treamment plan so that they know what they need to follow upon when. Instead I have to chase around trying to work out ( from cionsiderable distance away) if and when blood tests are required and if they then need follow uop, what stage hospital referalls are at and has there been communication from the hospitalk to the GP after an appointment and does that need following up. It is all very stressful and time wasting. And despite the individual being on your "list to be allowed pre-booked appointments nothing flags up on the file when I ring- so each time I have to go round the same rigmarole and then get handed to a senior person to get it organised- again stressful and timewasting.

Overall I find the surgery difficult and obstructive todeal with I get somewhere if I am pushy but that is not the eway I want to interact with people. The patient I advocate for has been with the surgery for over 6 years and has a number of overlapping and complex issues going on. I support them from some distance away and it would be helpful if everything did nto feel like a battle or that we were somehow "trying it on". There is not much by way of a holistic view of the situation and communication has is generally not good. Durign Covid the surgery seemed to jus close its doors- which is hard for a patient who finds phone calls difficult. We ended up sorting Covid vacines at walk-in clinics another town as it was easier to do that then to try to get information from your surgery. Same for the flu vacine. None of this is inevitable: my own surgery in a much poorer town of 15,000 managed to remain accessible and communicative throughout- with my husband having 3 face to face consultations during the 2 years- so I think it is a case of attitude and approach.