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East Cliff Practice
2020-01-07
Person
2
5
0
Written by a patient
Written by a patient 7th January 2020
Getting worse it seems for getting through on the phone, either the line is continuously busy or it won't go through at all and getting appointments can be beyond difficult. The receptionists (not all) can be very rude and quite often have no idea what they are doing or seem to have gained medical qualifications overnight.
I brought my daughter in 31/12/19 for an appointment, bearing in mind she was only just over 2 weeks old and went to reception to book her in whilst handing in registration forms for her anyway (with the reception manager present). Waited well over 20 minutes to then enquire as to when we would be seen as of course I didn't want her surrounded by people with possible colds, only to be told we were never marked down as having arrived the first time round. I had also booked my post natal appointment around a week after she was born and wanted to double check the time, only to be told it had never been booked to begin with.
The lack of care due to the reception area could impact someone massively if no changes are made. Majority of the doctors/nurses on the other hand are brilliant and provided an excellent level of care during a very difficult pregnancy.
30th January 2020
Response from East Cliff Practice
Thank you for your balanced review of the practice. We do appreciate feedback even when we get things wrong so that we can work to put things right. I am sorry for the continued frustrations with the phones. We have met recently with our telephone provider and shared many of our patients and our own feedback and frustrations with them. Despite the significant cost and the fact that the system has only been in place for just over 18 months we have been offered a replacement system which we are currently considering but will only agree to if we are confident it will deliver a significant improvement. I am sorry that you have a negative view of some of our reception team we are training new staff and there will unfortunately be delays and sometimes mistakes as they learn a complex system. Our reception team do have a challenging job as there are only a finite number of appointments with significant demand over and above the appointments we have to offer. Whilst a receptionist should never offer you a medical opinion the doctors have asked that they do ask questions when patients book appointments so that we can properly triage and put the right problems with the right professional. We can only apologise for the mistake that happened on the 31st December and for the wait you had and for the fact that a booking had not been confirmed. I will feed this back to our reception manager. Should you have any other issues with booking please do speak to our reception manager, Tracey, who will do her best to resolve them for you. I am pleased that you were happy with the majority of care during your pregnancy and look forward to welcoming your new daughter to the practice.