East Cliff Practice

Thank you for your comment. I am sorry that you have found it difficult to book an appointment. If you do need an urgent on the day appointment our Acute Care Team will always do what they can to either offer a face to face appointment or a telephone consultation with a doctor. We would never endorse the use of the local A&E Department for anything other than an Accident or Emergency. East Cliff Practice

Thank you for taking the time to comment. We are sorry that there was a delay in organising your blood test. Unfortunately during times of annual leave there are going to be fewer appointments. We will always do our best to fit in urgent requests for bloods where we can or patients do have the option of attending the hospital if they would prefer. We are always looking at ways we can refine the way that we work as the demand for our services continue to increase. Our process for managing test results is that a doctor will review the results when they are received back from the lab. Often this is at the end of a busy day in surgery. They will then make a comment on the patient’s notes which will either indicate if the result is normal or if the doctor needs to discuss the result with the patient. We advise patients to ring the practice after a few days to check the result and one of our care navigators will either confirm that the result is normal and pass on any message or where necessary book an appointment with the doctor. This is a more efficient way of managing test results. Unfortunately doctors are a limited resource it is a really inefficient use of their time if they have to ring patients and leave a message only to have the patient call back later whilst a doctor may be consulting with a patient. With regards to the waiting area we will always listen to suggestions on how we could improve things. Ultimately though we try and maintain a calm atmosphere because we are conscious of the fact that many people attending the surgery are there because they feel unwell. East Cliff Practice

Thank you for taking the time to review our Practice. We are sorry to hear that you have had a problem trying to book an appointment. The demand for appointments is high and growing all the time, and we are taking action to make more appointments available and to direct patients to the most suitable clinician for them to see. We have recently appointed 2 further Nurse Practitioners to support our new Acute Care Team, and will also have a new Clinical Pharmacist jointing us soon. In addition, we have an on going advertisement out for an additional GP (sadly in short supply). There are usually a number of appointments bookable 2 weeks and 4 weeks in advance but these can go very quickly. Unfortunately there was a temporary shortage of pre bookable appointments at the beginning of June when we had to amend the rotas to minimize the impact of a GP leaving the Practice. If you are not already signed up for Patient Access to book your appointments on line, please see our website (eastclifframsgate.nhs.uk) or contact our reception team (01843 855800) for details. We are here to help and sincerely hope the recent changes made to our Clinical Team and to our appointment rotas will make booking appointments easier going forward. East Cliff Practice

Thank you for your kind comments and for taking the time to leave a review of the Practice. It is very much appreciated. East Cliff Practice