Glenfield Surgery

Written by a patient

Avoid at all costs!!!! I have been extremely unwell in the last couple of months, I have waited for a scan referral for 8 weeks!!! 8 bl**dy weeks!!!!! Whatever I have could potentially be cancerous!!! You think they care?! Nope!!! I feel like everyone is being lazy and “can’t be bothered”. You can’t get an appointment if you have an emergency even thought the day, you’d have to know in the morning if your going to be seriously Ill in the afternoon *pardon the pun* but that’s exactly the way it is!!! You phone in with something alarming and all you get is a call back, which doesn’t really help if you have to wait a few hours and are in serious distress! I had to go to a walk in centre miles away after a doctor told me to “hang in there”. We thank goodness I listen to my gut feeling cause I was in serious medical trouble! I don’t trust the doctors at GS anymore and have took action cause this is not they way it should be. Please people listen to your gut instincts and if you don’t feel right after being turned down, either call an ambulance if an absolute emergency or if not go to urgent care where staff seem to take things seriously!

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Written by a patient

Having been told at a visit to weekend A and E to get a GP referral for a scan, I booked an appointment to do so. Doctor assured me the referral would be made and I should expect to have this in two to three weeks. More than two weeks down the line, with the excuse of bank holidays possibly holding up the process I returned to check some blood test results and asked about the scan appointment. Doctor said he would ask the secretaries to chase it up as "these things sometimes get forgotten". This was alarming. I was told to wait for a few days and he would be in touch to let me know what was happening. Nothing happened, so I called in today, six days later and asked the receptionist if such a referral had been made. "Yes," she said, "on Monday". I queried this and she confirmed that she indeed meant the Monday of this week, which was three weeks after the original consultation and several days after the follow up appointment. Not her fault, I understand that. But what sort of care does this constitute? Where nothing is done for weeks, where matters that are followed up are not reported back to patients, despite promises that this would happen, and "I don't know" is the only possible response from someone on the front line? She should know because the facts should be there. She should not be put in such a poor position due to others' incompetence. Have my symptoms worsened in these three weeks of nothing happening? Probably. Am I seriously ill as a result? No-one knows, because no-one has bothered to do anything, apart from me and I can't do anything without 'help' from those who have the power to allow me possible life-saving treatment, if they can get round to it. I would love to be able to report that effort has been made to accelerate the appointment, and that I have confidence in the treatment and service offered by these people. As soon as I am able to do so, I will do. Until then, I can only suggest that poorly people try another route.

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Written by a patient

It used to be possible to get an appointment. The practice was there to help unwell people to get better, to allow poorly people to see doctors who could help with worrying symptoms. Now, it's all about allowing paperwork to be processed, as patients seem to be treated as a nuisance - they turn up asking to make appointments to see doctors!! Christmas appointments are only available on the day. By that, they mean "Must be booked by 8.30am". The surgery opens its doors AT 8.30am which necessitates a queue of elderly or unwell people waiting in the cold and rain to stand a chance of getting one of the few available appointments. Those who are unlucky enough to be at the end of this queue or unaware of this new, "improved" service are told to come back at 2pm when there may be a nurse practitioner who could see them, or maybe make an appointment (soonest one is a week away) with a doctor. So. The back office staff are cosy and warm processing their paperwork, unencumbered by annoying, unwell, worried patients who are turned away from what passes for care in the village of Glenfield, back out into the winter weather, only to be forced to return to run the gauntlet of The Receptionist yet again. Will there be an available appointment tomorrow? Probably not. This is a "service" put into place for the convenience of office staff, not for the assistance or even benefit of the patients. These office workers and receptionists need to understand that the vast majority of people attending their doctor are doing it because there is a health problem, they are worried about something and NEED to see someone who can help them, not because they want to take up the tome of a receptionist. The unsympathetic, disinterested stare offered by counter staff as a response to a plea to see a doctor goes no way at all to instilling confidence in the system, but a long way to making sure that the queue for appointments reduces. Poorly people of Glenfield, stay away. Put up with your illnesses and symptoms. Hopefully they are not a warning of something sinister, but you can always make a future appointment (earliest one a week away) if you are really worried. Oh yes, there is a new procedure - you will be expected to explain your reasons for wanting an appointment with the receptionist, at the counter, in front of other poorly people. In public. Personally, I dread going to the doctor there, the procedures are awful, I have waited over half an hour for a booked appointment before. The doctor wasn't even in his consulting room, so I waited for over half an hour outside an empty room. He was at a meeting, in the practice building. Patients are truly an encumbrance. One patient who did complain over practice procedures was removed from the patient list. I hope that he has found a practice which welcomes patients and understands that they are people who need to be helped and not an unwelcome distraction from NHS imposed paperwork.

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Written by a patient

The surgery takes the view that you have nothing better to do than schedule your life around their requirements and have no understanding of how difficult it is for many of us to meet them. Two trips to the surgery are required to get a simple repeat prescription - one to take the printed form from reception and place it in a box, and the second to collect it two days later. Phone calls are no longer accepted for this. Also when I recently had a very personal problem, I was informed I could not make an appointment with a doctor unless I told the receptionist my problem. As I was not prepared to do this, I then had to travel miles out of my way to access an alternative provider. Doctors, if you are not dead before you get to see them, vary from poor to very good.

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Written by a carer

This surgery 30 years ago was outstanding! It is now a complete joke. Reception staff are rude, appointments a nightmare, and continuity of care non existent . I have to manage my parents care here and dread having to go in, which unavoidably is often. I rate only one of the doctors out of the many !!!

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