Patient Satisfaction Survey 16 August 2025
It’s time to have another look at comments left on our Patient Satisfaction Survey and Friends and Family Test by our patients.
Although finding time can be hard at times, we are committed to feeding back to our patients the feedback we receive. We are grateful to everyone who shares their feedback with us so we can continue to provide the best care and service possible to our patients.
Not all your suggestions may be put into action, but all will be looked at. Will the suggestions bring an actual improvement in service? Is this something that we can actually put in place?
So, let’s have a look at the recent feedback received:
‘Just say thank you to all the staff’
‘Seeing a doctor is better than a phone call, as you are having a face to face and you feel more at ease than talking on a phone’
(this patient had a face-to-face appointment)
‘The nurse and the receptionist were very professional 👌’
‘I came yesterday for an appointment and the doctor was extremely rude wouldn’t listen to me. Told me I was over weight wouldn’t listen when I asked for my tubs tying because of my history just told me it wasn’t my choice’
We’re uncertain what happened here and can’t investigate this either as the patient didn’t leave any contact details with their feedback. There are however a few things that would stop someone from having their tubes tied:
- If they are too overweight, the surgery might be too risky to their live and the surgeon won’t accept the request.
- The person is under 30. It is extremely unlikely that the surgeon will accept a request before the age of 30.
‘Doctor Lenton was lovely’
We think this person probably meant Dr Lannon, one of our regular locums.
‘Ellie was calm and professional throughout ,I can get anxious on blood tests but she was excellent ,thank you Ellie’
‘Lovely person heath care well done’
‘All I can say is thank you ALL in Grimethorpe Surgery you all do a fantastic job.’
And thank you for your lovely words.
‘I am very happy to be a patient at this surgery. The staff are really helpful and I appreciate your patience and support on the few occasions I have contacted you.
When I visited recently, I did not feel rushed during my appointment which was very much appreciated as I am going through a difficult time.
What a great team. Thank you’
Thank you for your kind feedback and we hope all will go well for you.
‘Excellent service by all the team at surgery’
‘I had an appointment with nurse Gemma this week,she was very helpful and informative put me at ease. Very good experience.’
‘This appointment was for annual medical review which is supposed to be done around your birthday, mine was 24 June, I was not contacted and had to call the surgery for an appointment. Apart from that the nurse was extremely helpful.’
We aim to do the recalls of annual reviews in the month of someone’s birthday. With around 7500 patients, this means we have around 300 people every month who need to be recalled. Although people with often think this is an automated system, this is something that the staff (currently the practice manager although she is training up more staff for this) needs to go through manually. In one hour, she can maximally process about 20 patients and she will often do this in any hours she can find outside of normal working hours. It is one of the many jobs on her to do list.
If someone doesn’t respond to their first invite, they will need to be invited again. And if they don’t respond to their second invite, they will need inviting a third time.
The recall system relies on staff coding the annual reviews done and if someone has multiple conditions, it is easy for them to forget to call all the reviews done (although it is written in free text). This means that we can’t just recall all the patients who pop up in the second recall search, as they may have had their review and not been coded. This means we need to go through all the patients’ records manually to check, add the code if it was forgotten and go on to the next patient on the list before recalling people.
This is a very time-intensive job.
So, if you haven’t been recalled in your birthday month, please contact us yourself. The recall schedule should be as follows:
Born in January or April – annual review due in April
Born in February or May – annual review due in May
Born in March or June – annual review due in June
Born in July – review in July
Born in August – review in August
Born in September – review in September
Born in October – review in October
Born in November – review in November
Born in December – review in December
‘Appointment system is not good’
With no further suggestions on how to improve or what is wrong with it, we can’t look at possible improvements.
‘Thankyou to all the staff and keep up the good work.’
‘Having to explain things to receptionists which to me should be between Doctor and me.’
We ask patients for a brief reason for their call and the patient can share as much information as they wish. The more they share, the more this helps the clinician when they do the assessment of need to determine if an appointment with a GP is needed, which GP would be the best suited for the problem the patient has, and to signpost the patient to other services that might be better suited to help the patient. For instance, if you have a dental abscess, this is not something the GP can help you with. The dentist is the person to turn to instead. If you have a problem with your eye or vision, the optician could be the better service for you. Several minor conditions can be seen by the pharmacist without the need for an appointment. They can prescribe some medication too. If you have a musculoskeletal problem, the first contact physio might be the better person for you. And you could skip seeing a doctor, being booked with them directly.
Our receptionists do not ask questions because they are nosy, they do so at the request of the GP to help them with the assessment of need. And our receptionists have as much as a duty to keep confidentiality as any other person at the practice does.
‘I normally book my appointment via telephone or online however on this occasion the appointment was booked in response to contact from the doctor and then I booked online.
I felt the doctor listened to my needs and was very thorough. The doctor became aware of a problem of which I didn’t know anything about so I left the surgery feeling that I had been dealt with very professionally. I would recommend this particular Doctor.’
We are pleased to hear this patient had a good experience. It is what we strive to achieve for all of our patients.
‘I think I’m a lucky one some of my family aren’t so lucky.’
We are not sure what this person meant by their comment.
‘Visit was good, Thank you’
‘I was seen by nurse Gemma Walker and she was amazing, caring and very attentive. I struggle with anxieties and she made me feel very at ease. My weight is an issue as well as my diabetes but she didn’t make me feel rubbish about it’
‘Great doctors plenty of time for you.’
‘Good advice given completely stopped any worry’s I had’
‘On ringing for an appointment i asked if dr maters was at the cudworth surgery as he knows about my problem, but on arriving i had a different doctor that does not no my medical history’
Unfortunately, we can only offer appointments with the doctor who has appointments available. Even if a doctor is working on the day, they may not have any appointments available. All patients can express their preference for a certain doctor, and this will be considered. However, if no appointments are available with that doctor, an appointment will be offered with a different doctor.
‘Both reception and doctor were very helpful and I am grateful to all the staff thankyou.’
‘Very good nurse I met thorough and professional’
‘First visit at this practice and with Dr Sam and the first time in years I’ve felt heard and listened to. She has such empathy and really cares.’
‘I made an appointment to have legs measured for stocking it was made for afternoon and nurse explained she couldn’t do this procedure as legs are more swollen in afternoon so she told me to go back Wednesday morning and I sat there no nurse she had sent me to wrong surgerey so I went to grimethorpe and no nurse available and they said to sit and wait which I couldn’t as I was due at work. Very disappointing by the service I recived’
We are very sorry to hear that. We will again make sure our reception team are trained on this issue. Although we have told them that leg measurements can only take place before 10 am, and only one of our nurses can currently do this, it appears they still forgot about this. We will inform them again. As it currently stands, there is only one appointment available weekly on a Monday morning in Grimethorpe. Obviously this can’t happen when that nurse is on annual leave.
‘I attended for med rev blds etc with Gemma…She was very friendly and dealt with my appt. perfectly… She reminded me of Lucy who I worked with at White Rose….
I haven’t been contacted since my appt though re my bld results etc…The receptionist who booked my appt, advised me to make just the nurse appt at the time…and not the double appt i had requested with the pharmacist for later…. so up to now I haven’t had a follow up discussion…. and i am presuming and also understanding that the pharmacist is very busy…..
Athough i live at Cudworth, and seldom request a Dr appt , I much prefer the peaceful and calming atmosphere of the surgery at Grimethorpe….’
Thank you. We will check if you have received this telephone appointment with our pharmacist. If this has not yet taken place, we will send you a text to book your own telephone appointment with them.
‘Thank you’
‘Tried to get extra tablets previously through reception saw diabetic nurse and she sorted it for me because I run out every month’
We are unsure which medication relates to and what happened exactly. It may have been that there has been a misunderstanding. Patients will often refer to their ‘monthly’ prescriptions. We don’t prescribe a calendar month worth of medication, but a 4-week supply of medication. This ensures that the due date of the medication will fall on a weekday (bank holidays excluded). The patient should therefore request their repeat prescriptions every 4 weeks, rather than every month. Certain medication can also be overused by patients, and the doctor will need to assess if the medication needs increasing, or whether this is an addictive drug which should be reduced instead.
Sometimes the request is for a salbutamol inhaler for our asthma patients. The national guidelines for the treatment of asthma have recently changed and the recommendation is now that the blue inhaler should be used as infrequently as possible. The current treatment tends to include combination inhalers where there is a preventer and a longer lasting reliever within the same inhaler. These will then be used as per care plan agreed with the nurse, doctor or pharmacist. If you only rely on your blue inhaler, it may be time to have your asthma treatment reviewed.
‘This appointment was for blood tests and ‘mot’ and I thought that it went very well and I would regard it as having been a pleasant visit.’
‘Excellent’
‘The nurse was very nice made me feel comfortable and was chatting to me as well’
‘The reseprioneet wanted me to see the dr regarding my blood results, however I had to wait over trr wee o week to see the dr. I did ask if the dr could just write me a prescription as I am aware how busy they are but that wasn’t possible. Seen the dr was a waste of his and my time. I felt really embarrassed as the dr said my bloods were nothing to worry about. Even tho my iron was low.’
We are sorry to hear this patient felt her and the doctor’s time were wasted. The receptionist will contact our patients on behalf of the doctor who has viewed the results. That doctor must have felt it would be important to see and review the patient based on the results. It is often a case of someone preferring to play it safe rather than feel sorry after.
‘Please bring back blood tests at the surgery.for older people.’
Funny you should mention that. We are currently reviewing this process as we will hopefully have slightly more capacity with Gemma returning to us in September. We are looking to do blood tests in the following circumstances only:
- The blood test is one requested by our GPs
- The blood test is part of a chronic disease review
- The blood test is part of a shared care agreement the GP has agreed to
Any blood tests that are requested by the hospital would still need to be done at the Glassworks. Anyone who would prefer to have their bloods done at the Glassworks, could have them done there too.
Once the above has been agreed on, we will inform people of this. But, it is being considered at the moment.
This concludes the feedback on the feedback we have received for this time. I have read through the 150 most recent feedbacks and they are included above.
Thank you for the time you take in filling out the questionnaire, it is appreciated. Your feedback helps us to improve our services further.