Northdown Surgery

Northdown Surgery 2016-08-18 Person 2 5 0

Quite simply a wait of 5 minutes after the standard spiel re opening times etc. for a response to a midday call re a letter from the surgery requesting that I contact them for an appointment is not acceptable. Quite simply I have found that the only way to be sure of an appointment is to join the car park queue of patients waiting for the surgery doors to open at 8 a.m. If you plan to do this to ensure you're not waiting in the queue outside the car park make sure you get there at 7.30 a.m. The appointment service is pathetic and could benefit from improvement not excuses.

Northdown Surgery 2016-03-17 Person 1 5 0

I think the whole booking an appointment thing is a farce, I tried booking an appointment online only to find the earliest date was over 3 wks away which isn't any good for anybody especially when I'm an agency worker and never know what shift I'm doing til a couple of days before and I can't afford to take time off work. I then tried to book an appointment over the phone, I tried over 30 times between 0800 - 0830 before I finally got through to someone who then told me all the appointments for the morning surgery were gone and to try again in the afternoon. I told the receptionist that I was unable to do that as I had to go to work at 2pm, I then asked if I could make an appointment for tomorrow to be told that they are unable to book appointments for the next day and that I can only make an appointment by phoning in the morning after 0800 for that day in question. so I have still been unable to make an appointment. 3 wks for an appointment is absolutely diabolical.

Northdown Surgery 2016-03-01 Person 1 5 0

Disgraceful service. Very unhelpful and rude and you can never get an appointment.

Northdown Surgery 2016-02-25 Person 2 5 0

Impossible to get through to surgery by telephone as permanently engaged to get same day appointment. Attended drop in clinic where I had to wait for approximately an hour and half. One suggestion to speed up the drop in clinic would be for other clinicians who's appointments do not turn up to take somebody from the drop in list rather than hanging around in reception waiting for their next appointment. When attending an appointment with someone that you have specifically booked with and you are directed to somebody else without any explaination or apology is very inconsiderate and just leaves you feeling like a number and not a person.

Northdown Surgery 2016-02-01 Person 2 5 0

The Doctors are OK if you can get to see one! The admin is atrocious and seems to have the parent - child mentality added to the dictum "We're the NHS and we know best!" Some of the staff are different however , but the rest run on rails. seemingly thinking that the public should be eternally grateful for their presence. After ringing and re-ringing the surgery number it took an hour to get to speak to a human. Surgery number seems to be perpetually engaged. There is no queuing system. Finally got through at around 9.30am., however it took around 4 mins for someone to answer. By then there was no chance of getting an appointment instead was offered an emergency one. What wasn't explained was although you have to check in at the surgery by 10.30 am then you have to wait until the doctors have finished their usual appointments, which is around 11.30am. to be seen by a doctor. Still you can console yourself by reading the "no show " figure which apper n the overhead displays. Since the Practice has a policy of 3 "no shows " and you're out it would probably better to emphasise this point rather than just mention the figures. They say “Patience is a Virtue “ and you'll need it here!