Novum Health Partnership - Rushey Green Group Practice

Baring Road Medical Centre Grove Park SE12.. My heart consultant requested medicine change in August 2023 and yes I was shown request sent to them by consultant 4 weeks ago after i saw her to complain of issues but this Novum Health Centre practice only just put the request to my Pharmacist recently and then 10 days ago sent text message say your change meds have serious side effect go third party portal look it up. Then this clinic tell patients now they cannot phone them etc but must use their portal. Complaints by patients are very high and they not bothered. DISGUSTING MEDICAL CENTRE I am Samuel Dunmoodie of BR1 5NL..

Since lockdown I have not been able to see my doctor. I call at 8am & 1pm as instructed, I go online NO appointment. I went into the surgery this morning to be told be the practice manager that they are not allowed to book appointments and I need to go on line, she ran off a list of options that I can use, ASK NHS, call 111 and had the audacity to say “well I haven’t seen my doctor either in two years”. So that makes it ok that I am unable to book an appointment. I lost the will when she told me to ring emergency line… “why I asked their are people with real emergencies, I am not well and just need an appointment to discuss my problem with a doctor. Distressed I just left the surgery; still with NO appointment, NO solution NO apology. I was made to feel like I was a nuisance and was taking up her time. I have been registered with this Group Practice for over 30 years; albeit when I registered it was not a group practice and have NEVER experienced anything like this. I know COVID has put a great strain on the services but I feel that this group practice in particular is using this as a reason to keep patients away, I also think that patients are not treated with respect and that if the front line staff have a practice manager who is unable to see the world through the patients eyes , they have no example to follow.

Horrific practice. Honestly the worst GP surgery I've ever attended and I class myself a 'good' patient - we keep ourselves healthy, we don't overburden the service unnecessarily and we appreciate the pressure primary care is under. However, we don't feel safe as patients in their care and the level of communication is unbearable and we will move GP as soon as we can. In the meantime: - Documents regularly get lost, not uploaded to your records, so you have to go through the process twice. This happened with a medical exemption certificate that was never sent on my behalf. - Non-urgent emails requesting confirmation of receipt, do not get confirmed (I sent such an email in March attaching a clinical diagnosis from a non-NHS healthcare provider to be added to my NHS record. Nothing) - Impossible to speak to a GP, despite sacrificing a day's pay and ringing at both 8am & 1pm to jump through the hoops of their appointment system that is not remotely patient-centred. - Brusque responses from some of the staff 'nothing in life's guaranteed' was the response to the above issue - In the early days of the Omicron wave (November) total lack of mask wearing in patients and reception staff - just me and one medic the whole time I was there and so wasn't remotely surprised to receive messages a month later saying the practice was having to go into Covid measures again due to sickness. - Ridiculous unsolicited texts sent. 'You're due a medical' - great - but with a phone appointment booked without your consultation with less than 24 hours notice for this medical. Text says to reply to text if time not appropriate (of course it isn't with less than 24h notice) but text comes from a number that doesn't accept replies. Waste of their time and mine. - Have we tried AskFirst? Yes, it's useless and no, appointments aren't available there either. - Have been told to ring NHS111 and told to ask them to book an appointment for me. I used to work at NHS111, that's not how they work. NHS111 is a triage service for non-urgent medical issues. After triage of said medical issue, the pathways system disposition may, or may not suggest a GP appointment. You can't just ring and say, 'I need to get a referral for a bone density scan can you book an appointment with my GP?' - My partner was in King's major trauma unit as a result of a traumatic brain injury. Upon his discharge he needed further assistance - impossible to engage with; refused to make referral that was on his discharge notice but had been omitted by King's, only later making it under duress and total refusal to engage with DVLA about his fitness to drive despite the DVLA categorically stating it was the responsibility of his primary care provider in the first instance. General attitude over the whole business was that we were a pain in the neck. Total lack of empathy for his recent serious accident and caused an enormous amount of un-needed stress and anxiety to someone in recovery from a traumatic brain injury. - A complaint email to one of the partners regarding the above was only replied to many weeks later and only partially addressed the issues, simply reiterating their stance ref DVLA. - I take a life-sustaining medication following surgical removal of a crucial gland. I always put in my repeat prescription request with plenty of time to account for hiccups - these happen, we accept that. This medication was missed off the prescription, probably because a review was due. Only I wasn't informed that the review was due and arrived at the pharmacy to collect as usual. Took the day off work (I'm a freelance, so I missed a day's pay) and rang at both 8am and 1pm but could not speak to a GP. So currently in the situation where I have no access to my medication and bolshy receptionists who just tell you to call again tomorrow at 8am - but without any assurance that the experience tomorrow will be any different than the completely futile multiple attempts of today. Just abysmal.