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Written by a patient
8th March 2019


I truly feel I have the best doctor Dr Mash and want to tell everyone who moans about the practise and doctors to step back and take into account what the practise deals with on a daily basis. I have many chronic problems which are managed together between my Dr Mash & myself. I have been having recurring chest infection since Christmas and have been treated by Dr Mash and Dr Woodward, Dr Woodward actually came to my home twice, unfortunately after 4 courses of antibiotics, which the microbiologist said to give me and 3 courses of steriods Dr Mash said to go to the hospital immediately and was diagnosed with pneumonia and was an inpatient for 10 days. With regards to booking appointments I agree there is a big problem, before the new system was installed I could try upto 150+ times to get through but was constantly engaged, which although annoying didn't cost anything but my time, however the new system is actually costing quite a lot because as soon as you here "welcome to ......" the cost starts and it wasn't until I received my phone bill I found out how much, one call lasted approximately 30 minutes and I was charged £4.50+! That's disgraceful, I'm lucky in that I have unlimited calls on my mobile which is the method I use since seeing that bill, but what about the elderly who don't have mobiles it will be costing them a fortune! When I do get through I like the telephone consultation appointments because I don't always feel up to leaving the house and when my chest is bad the first thing I have to do is a sputum sample, talking this through on the phone saves both our time and we discuss the findings again on the phone BUT if Dr Mash isn't happy she makes a face to face appointment for me. Dr Mash's appointments never run to time but there is good reason, she listens to her patients, she isn't just looking at the computer screen with the prescription pad in her hand, people moan about waiting but I'm happy waiting because I know she cares for her patients. So after wittering on my purpose for this post is "patients please bear in mind your doctor is running late because they need to spend an extra few minutes with a vulnerable patient" and to the surgery "please inform your patients that calling you can be very expensive! Thank you

14th March 2019
Response from East Cliff Practice

Thank you for your comments which have been shared with the doctors. We are sorry for the continued problems with the telephone system. Our telephone number continues to be a local rate number and the practice does not receive any revenue from it so call charges to patients go entirely to your telephone provider. The difficulty we had when we introduced the new telephone system is that many patients told us they were frustrated with the constant engaged tone and actually preferred to know they were at least in a queue which unfortunately now costs depending on the connection charges. We have increased the number of call handlers to try and manage demand but unfortunately Thanet is currently the 4th most under doctored area in the country and despite our best efforts to recruit more doctors this is placing huge demand on the existing practices across Thanet. East Cliff Practice

Recommend
Involvement
Cleanliness
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Appointment