Share review of Wye Surgery

Wye Surgery 2022-12-13 Person 1 5 0

I have been registered with this GP since I was about nine months old, bar a few years when I was living elsewhere. Historically I always found I could get an appointment if I really needed it, even if there were no routine appointments left. I am very sorry to be writing this feedback. The only thing that has held me back so long is a strong sense of loyalty to the surgery , and to some members of clinical staff in particular (Dr Raj, Dr Crouch, and others). That and the fact that I don't know whether any other surgeries are doing better. Sadly, this is no longer the case. In fact, the surgery is virtually uncontactable these days. And even if you can make contact, it's a coin toss whether you can get appropriate care. 1) Usually it is impossible to join the call queue in the mornings. Staff encourage you to call up at 8am another day if you can't get seen one day, but the line is reliably busy and you cannot get through. I have tried over thirty times this morning, and sadly this is not a unique occurrence. 2) Even if you do get through to the call queue, you might get kicked out for no discernible reason. On multiple occasions the line has totally disconnected after I have sat in a call queue for 20+ minutes. 3) Staff encourage you to use their "econsult" system, but it is rarely available. The surgery's page on the econsult website never says it is unavailable, however. It just hosts a message saying that econsult is available Monday to Friday 8 am to 12 noon (even if you visit it during those times). If you scroll down and press any of the buttons to seek advice, you just get taken back to the top of the page with no explanation. 4) When responding to an econsult submission, practitioners fairly reliably seem to have little knowledge of your medical history, regardless of how much they have in their notes or you have submitted in your econsult. What is the point of asking all the questions if staff are just going to ignore them? I have lost count of the number of times I have had a text or email response from a doctor that suggests or recommends something entirely inappropriate - and they would have known so had they read the submission. Being recommended drugs I'm already taking, being told to go to service X even when my econsult explains why service X couldn't help, etc etc. 5) When practitioners respond to econsults, you aren't usually able to reply. Sometimes they will telephone and you can have a reasonable conversation - even if much of the conversation is just repeating things you already said in your econsult - but more often you get a text or email. And 90% of the time there is no link to reply. So you are forced to call the surgery (which won't work), submit another laborious econsult (which they apparently won't read), or just abandon hope of getting medical help. 6) There is no public email address to contact the surgery. 7) Surgery staff seem unreasonably opposed to sending forms and documents electronically, even when they have a legal obligation to make reasonable adjustments for disabled patients who can't just pop in and out of the surgery all the time. If you ask one of the receptionists to send you a form by text, they can usually text you a secure link to download it. But this is rarely offered - even if you ask for a form to be sent electronically - and clinicians seem particularly unwilling to do it even if you ask (irrespective of their legal obligation to make reasonable adjustments). 8) Tests that come back "normal" seem to often be treated as "everything is fine" by staff. This may sound sensible when you first hear it, but it is actually very frequently quite bad. I would expect staff to be aware that very often patients are suffering from symptoms that don't just disappear when a particular test isn't positive. Further investigations or advice are often necessary, and so the line you often get, "normal - no action", is completely inappropriate. In the interests of objectivity, there are some positive comments I'd like to make; I) Reception staff seem to have become much friendlier and helpful over the last couple of years. In the past it has sometimes felt like receptionists see their job as making it as difficult as possible for patients to get care. Some customer service and patient care training was desperately needed. And either it has been given, or new receptionists with appropriate skills have been hired. It is difficult to emphasise how positive this change has been so the surgery staff and reception team deserve commendation for this. II) When I visit, the surgery is always extremely clean. The toilet could do with a paper towel dispenser or a more modern air dryer (one that doesn't just warm up the pathogens on your still-wet hands), but the entire surgery seems extremely clean and tidy, from the waiting area to the toilets to the consultation rooms. III) The surgery building interior is beautiful, warm and homely. The exposed brickwork looks lovely, and the whole place tends to exude calm and safety (as long as you haven't been traumatized by your inability to get care!).

1. Make contacting the surgery easier - a public email address, a phone system with higher bandwidth, better communication on wyesurgery.webgp.co.uk re econsult availability.