It’s our weekly check-in time again. We wonder what comments our patients have left this week and what lessons we can learn from this. So, let’s have a look.
How likely are you to recommend our GP practice to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?
Extremely likely
Can you tell us why you gave that response?
Not waiting too long for appointment
Do you think the practice has improved in the last 12 months?
Yes
What are we doing particularly well?
Answering my questions
What do you feel we can improve on and how?
Nothing its fine as it is
How likely are you to recommend our GP practice to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?
Likely
Can you tell us why you gave that response?
Always manage to get an appointment
Do you think the practice has improved in the last 12 months?
I haven’t used it enough to comment
How likely are you to recommend our GP practice to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?
Extremely Unlikely
Can you tell us why you gave that response?
There’s never any appointments, doctors are awful. Some receptionists are nice and the nurses are lovely but other than that it’s disappointing
Do you think the practice has improved in the last 12 months?
Yes it as due to the phone line system. The waiting and being told what number in line you are is much better than the system before where one person at a time could ring
What are we doing particularly well?
I do appreciate being able to use grimethorpe and cudworth surgery and the new phone system is a lot better
What do you feel we can improve on and how?
The doctors! I’ve never in my life been made to feel so rubbish and small. I’ve stopped making appointments with any doctor. Would rather just suffer.
We’re sorry to hear this patient is feeling so unhappy with our doctors. The doctors would be horrified to know this was how they came across. We are especially concerned about the last statement that the patient no longer wishes to seek help. If the patient doesn’t trust our doctors or doesn’t wish to see our doctors, the patient may need to consider registering with a different practice to ensure their health needs are looked after. We do not wish the patient to miss out on treatment they may need. That said, we don’t agree with the patient’s statement that the doctors are awful. They all care deeply about our patients.
How likely are you to recommend our GP practice to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?
Unlikely
Can you tell us why you gave that response?
When ringing up to make an appointment you’re lucky to o get in the queue, when you do & you’re told you are number 5 I’ve held that place for more than 35 minutes to be cut off & have the same thing happen again.
Do you think the practice has improved in the last 12 months?
No, I’ve seen the triage nurse & been referred to Iheart before seeing a doctor on my panel.
What are we doing particularly well?
Offering the flu jabs
What do you feel we can improve on and how?
See a doctor at least once a year. My husband & I have never been offered a NHS health check
Another unhappy customer. There appear to be three problems this patient is unhappy about. The first our phone system that doesn’t cope well enough with the demand placed on it and the occasional cutting off of patients in the queue. This is something we’ve gone back to our suppliers with, who still are unable to give a reasonable explanation why this happens. We apologise if this happens to any of our patients.
The second problem appears to have been seeing a triage nurse after which the patient was referred to i-Heart. This one baffles us as we don’t have a triage nurse. Especially not one who sees patients and then directs them to i-Heart. We currently have 4 clinicians (Dr Maters, Dr Sam, Mrs Jackie Spencer (ANP) and Miss Tariro Jera (PA)) who perform an assessment of need based on the information the patient has provided to the receptionist. They then assess which service or clinician is best placed to help the patient with the problem they have. The outcome is then passed on to the patient. Usually by text message and sometimes by phone call instead.
And the third thing this patient mentions is with regards to annual appointments with the GP for an NHS Health Check. These checks are available for patients aged 40-74 every 5 years. Not every year. Currently these are offered to several patients in this age group. Whether patients need to be seen annually depends on the health conditions they have.
How likely are you to recommend our GP practice to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?
Extremely likely
Can you tell us why you gave that response?
Good reliable practice, friendly and helpful staff
How likely are you to recommend our GP practice to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?
Extremely likely
Can you tell us why you gave that response?
The practice nurse (Gemma) is so friendly, helpful and professional. She explained everything and made the appointment less stressful
Do you think the practice has improved in the last 12 months?
Any appointments or contact I have had has been excellent
What are we doing particularly well?
Good contact, friendly reception staff, professional & helpful medical/ nursing staff
What do you feel we can improve on and how?
It would be great to see online results from blood tests
Also, online booking for appointments would be much more accessible to people with jobs that make it difficult to wait on phone lines
We’re pleased this patient is happy with our services. We noticed the request to see blood results online. The good news is that all patients who have online access should be able to see their medical records, including results and letters, online. Anyone who has been registered since before September 2023 can see their record online from mid-September onwards. Patients who registered after this time can see their records online from the date of registration. The NHS App allows you to do so easily. We currently don’t allow booking appointments online as this doesn’t allow us to perform an assessment of need to ensure the patient sees the most suitable service or clinician. But we do send booking links out to patients to book their own appointments where this is appropriate.
I wish when trying to get through to the doctors there were a better schedule or more phone lines as its impossible to get through when you need to.
We have two phone lines, one in Cudworth and one in Grimethorpe. Unfortunately, there is little scope to change this. We will continue to look for ways to improve the experience for our patients.
Was seen very quickly. My first appointment in years. Was a good outcome.
I much prefer to attend my appointments at my local Grimethorpe surgery, as it is nearer home. The last two appointments have been at Cudworth.
We aim to get our patients seen by the right clinician or service as soon as this can be done. This may mean that the patient will need to travel.
Your telephone booking to see a doctor doesn’t work I went into Cudworth to book an appointment after leaving the NHS physio who sent me to see the doctor and give him a letter to be sent the carpark to ring only for all the phone lines down went to grimethorpe sorted in a few seconds??
Unfortunately, we had an issue with the phones recently and the system was down. Several practices in Barnsley were affected. As the phones were letting us down, we allowed our staff, on this occasion only, to deal with requests at reception. We don’t generally allow this to protect patient confidentiality.
Care was fine once I made contact with the surgery. It’s challenging to keep trying when the phone line is busy, I cleared the call log on my phone trying to speak to a receptionist, so gave up. When I tried on a different day my call did connect but I was on hold for over 20 minutes. This puts me off trying to arrange an appointment.
Another example of why we would like improvements to our phone system. We recently expressed an interest in adding a call-back function to the queuing system where patients could choose to hold their position in the queue and hang up the phone to be called back. Unfortunately, we have been informed this is not currently feasible. We will continue to look at ways to improve the system, though.
Contacting the surgery is very stressful but once through everything is great.
Doctor appointment booking via app
Thank you for being very polite and sociable.
Came to refer my child for ADHD traits, was in and out with in five minute and was sent away with a referral form for CAMHS . When I called CAMHS , they notified me I had been sent to the wrong place as my child wasn’t old enough to be referred through their system
We apologise this has happened.
Unfortunately, the guidance relating to these referrals changes fairly frequently. We assume this is while they try to set up the most suitable service for this. There have been occasions where service A informed us that we referred to the wrong service and it should be service B that we should refer to. After following this advice service B would then inform us it was service A instead. It’s usually best to request these type of referrals from the school instead (also those for autism assessment), as a lot of the information needed for the referral is information only known to the school and not by the GP.
Found it all ok no problem
Getting to see a doctor is near on impossible. Especially if you are a working person. Recently had appointment for a blood test arrived 10 mins early no one in waiting room. Booked in still waiting 20 mins after my appointment time. Asked why and receptionist had forgot to book me onto computer
We apologise this happened, it should not have. Although there may be several reasons why this could have happened, it shouldn’t have.
For me you can’t improve, more than happy with the services I receive, Thankyou.
And that concludes the comments left this week. Some people are unhappy with our services, but the majority are satisfied or happy with them. We will continue to look for ways to improve our services further within the limitations we live with. Reading the positive comments lifts our mood whereas the negative ones make us question what we are doing wrong and what we can do to improve it. No one is perfect and that certainly can be seen in the comments left. Thank you for taking the time to fill in the surveys and helping us to improve ourselves. It is much appreciated.
