Munro Medical Centre 2020-01-15 Person 1 5 0

This surgery is a large multi-disciplinary surgery with doctors, office based paramedics and nurses. It is owned by a Doctor Wheatley, and there are a variety of subservient doctors throughout the practice. It is open from around 8AM for patients to come in, but the GPs are never on time, and run late from the first appointment. It is reasonably easy to ring up and get an appointment, but you can also go in personally to make an appointment at the reception desk. The receptionists vary in quality from vaguely caring to rude, but it is nice that they have eastern european receptionists too for patients who do not speak english as a first language. You are always made to feel that you are a patient, and second class, though. If you ring up and say you would like to "see a doctor", if you do not specify that you want to see a "qualified doctor" or a GP, some receptionists will book you in with one of the paramedics without telling you that you are seeing a paramedic. They will simply say "[name] has a space at [time], would you like to see them?" It is worth being aware of this, as the paramedics will also not introduce themselves as paramedics, so you can be left thinking you have seen a doctor when you haven't. There are a variety of waiting areas, and you can never be quite sure which waiting area you will be going to or which room your clinician will be in. When it is your turn to be called in, your name is called out over a loudspeaker as well as flashed up on the big monitors scattered around the waiting areas. You then have to try and find the room (there are over 30 of them in little nooks and crannies). The doctor or clinician never comes to greet you, or open the door - better surgeries will have the clinician come out to call you, or at least open the door. The fact that you have to go to a closed door and knock on it and then go in acts as a nice reinforcement that you are just an annoyance to the staff. Although the practice runs late from the start - I have previously had the first appointment of the day but the doctor started 15 minutes late (of course if I had attended late, the doctor would have refused to see me), the doctors and paramedics are fanatical to the point of lunacy about keeping the appointments at ten minutes or less, and there has only been one time I have attended where the clinician hasn't spent all their time scrolling through the computer screen rather than actually looking at you as you talk to them. One could argue that this is simply modern medicine but it is yet another example of dehumanisation of the patient. The quality of care you receive is down to the doctor. There have been good doctors here, but they are only ever temporary and move away very quickly. The paramedics are undoubtedly great if you are in a car crash or something, but in an office environment they are abrupt and if you aren't quick enough with your answers are clearly impatient and annoyed (which of course can just make the situation worse). The doctors vary - please see the separate reviews as written. The dispensary staff are pretty nice, and it appears it is possible to buy the medication at the surgery but if you prefer you can buy them at the pharmacy next door. Due to the nature and behaviour of the doctors, I would not recommend this practice.