Harold Road Surgery 2023-01-30 Person 5 5 0

I rang to book a telephone appointment on Thursday and received the call on Monday as planned but earlier than was expected, which was helpful. Dr Dann took the time to explore my ideas, concerns and expectations of what I wanted from the appointment. We have never met before but he had briefed himself on the relevant elements of my medical history. He asked lots of open questions in a calm, structured way which did not feel like an interrogation. He explained things I needed to know and enabled me to take some ownership of my symptoms by sending over links to information to make informed decisions, a questionnaire and a diary. He explained everything very clearly and arranged follow up for further reassurance. I feel like we can work together to make decisions about my health. He also signposted me to the Engage consult service so I can book my next appointment via the website and invited my to come and use the health monitoring equipment in the surgery so we have some baseline results for my record. For the first time I feel like I have been heard, understood and am able to work together with my GP because he has enabled me to contribute to my own health care. Although I have never had any complaints about any staff at this surgery, I highly recommend Dr Dann.

Spread the word about all the facilities available via the website / Patient Access. These resources are excellent and designed to alleviate some of the pressures on patients and practice staff. I don't feel that the first port of call for patients is the website, so making this more common knowledge may help workloads. Maybe use of social media is a useful way of interacting with the type of patients who would benefit most from these resources. There is always such constant bad press for GP surgeries, I really don't think people appreciate all the improvements which have been made over recent years - spread the word!