St Andrews Medical Practice

St Andrews Medical Practice 2018-04-13 Person 3 5 0

I usually have great things to say about this surgery and my review is not related to the surgery itself or the doctors and care given. It is to do with the appointments line. This morning I spent well over an hour trying to get through to the surgery to make an appointment for my daughter. I wouldnt even have minded that, but every time I got to the front of the queue my call got cut off and I had to start again. This happened 4 TIMES!!! I gave up in the end and called 111. I would like to add that this isn't the first time i’ve had issues with the appointment line, in the past I have also been cut off or it has connected to the wrong extension and nobody would talk to me about appointments on that line but I couldnt connect to the appointments line. I have always received great care at the surgery and the doctors are very helpful - assuming you can actually get through to make an appointment!!

St Andrews Medical Practice 2018-03-28 Person 2 5 0

I am very disappointed in attempts to book an appointment. For the last few days we could not contact the survey by phone. The line didn't seem to function, and the evergreen booking facility did not offer an appointment at all. When we finally got through we were offered only two days and they were almost four weeks ahead. This is pathetic! This experience does not seem to be what our friends have at other practices. Very very disappointing.

St Andrews Medical Practice 2017-12-23 Person 1 5 0

Impossible to get an appointment, rude receptionists, nonchalant doctors. Would really not recommend. I have complained and they haven't even bothered to get back to me.

St Andrews Medical Practice 2017-11-27 Person 1 5 0

My family is registered with St Andrews Medical practice (N20) for a year and I have never had a nice experience with them. Today, I had an encounter with the rudest receptionist ever (Yvonne). Yvonne who doesn’t know me or my son’s medical history, believed that she had the right to question my love and affection towards my young son, to say in her impolite way that I am not a good mother. Why? Because I chose not to wait in the hospital’s pharmacy for more than 90 minutes for his prescription, but instead I chose the route to go to their (unhelpful) GP practice. I was given the option at the hospital to either wait or take the letter and a copy of the prescription to the GP, who apparently they will be happy to prescribe it. So, actually dear Yvonne, I did put my son first when I made that decision. He was tired and upset that he had to wait another 1.30-2hrs for his medication after had been in the hospital for an hour and a half for his scheduled outpatient appointment. Well he is only 4 years old. According to this unprofessional receptionist “the practice doesn’t work like this” and "they will most possibly refuse to prescribe the medication". Unbelievable! A prescription issued by a specialist NHS consultant within one of the best hospitals in the country! Still, I am ready to accept that they have the right to refuse for their “justified” reasons. How am I supposed to know their way of business? It is their responsibility to communicate their unwillingness to help with prescriptions from hospitals, by directly informing the pharmacies of those hospitals so patients are not given the wrong information and option. I don’t understand how some receptionists believe that have the right to question a mother’s or carer’s love or a consultant’s decision. I have spent weeks in hospital because of my son’s medical condition. Waiting another two hours is nothing for me. I as a mother put my child’s health, comfort and happiness first. I should have expected though that the staff in St Andrews Medical practice would not be helpful, for one more time. Some people in these practices think they are superior, they have authorities by the God or the Queen or they think they know better that the experts in hospitals. Experts who know the patient better than the GPs, nurses or receptionists, experts who although are very busy spend time to read the history of the patient and carefully and actively listen to them and their parents. Medical Center managers stop ignoring the specialists, start putting the interest of your patients first and train your staff! The role of a professional receptionist is to help and inform in a polite way the patients of the practice. To be considerate of their needs and ill health. A professional receptionist will never make impolite comments and unnecessary, unwanted loutish judgments. Should also remember that working in a medical center as a receptionist does not qualify them as doctors.

St Andrews Medical Practice 2017-10-30 Person 1 5 0

The drs are lovely and helpful but the receptionist are disgraceful! I understand having to wait to see the dr (although an hour is still pretty awful) but then after coming out of that, which is obviously a stressful situation as going to the dr you are not well, and wanting to hand in a sample to reception being told to go to the back of the line to wait again! I assumed there was a form to fill out, but when I got there she just takes it. Clearly on some power trip, she comes across lovely and friendly but doesn’t seem to care or understand people feeling tense about a health scare. For shame. They should try have some empathy.