The Willow Group - Waterside Medical Centre

Reply from The Willow Group - Waterside Medical Centre
Fri, 04 Oct 2019 09:04:04 +0100

Dear Sir/Madam, Thank you for bringing your concern to our attention, I know this can be difficult and we do value all feedback. I am sorry to hear that you were kept waiting past your anticipated appointment time. Whilst I fully understand that this can be frustrating for our patients, the Clinicians endeavour to give each patient their due care and attention during their appointment which on occasion, due to complex patient needs or medical emergencies; this can result in a delay of your appointment. Unfortunately if each patients consultation runs over the allocated time frame this then has a knock on effect for the appointments following this, rather than rush these appointments and potentially risk having a detrimental effect on the patients outcome from the appointment the Clinicians strive to provide a high standard of care to all patients which can sometimes mean that appointments take longer than anticipated. I hope that during your appointment you felt not rushed and that the GP listened and tended to your needs. I hope you feel that I have adequately answered your concerns. However, if there are any points requiring clarification or if any new points have arisen which you consider have not been addressed by the Practice, please contact me via FGCCG.mywillowexperience@nhs.net with your full name, date of birth and I will be happy to look into this further for you. Yours Faithfully, Natasha Dalton Patient Experience Advisor

Reply from The Willow Group - Waterside Medical Centre
Fri, 04 Oct 2019 09:32:19 +0100

Dear Sir/Madam, Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention, I know this can be difficult and we do value all feedback. I am sorry to hear that you were kept waiting past the anticipated waiting time for your call to be answered; the phone system has recently been upgraded to inform patients of the anticipated waiting time for each call to be answered. This changes very regularly and depends on how long the previous calls have taken to be answered. I would also like to confirm that we have had some New Care Navigators start with the practice and we hope to see a decrease in the call waiting time to reflect this. As you may be aware the NHS is going through significant difficulties currently including a shortage nationally of GPs, which is affecting the Willow Group inclusive. We also find it unacceptable that patients are on occasion having to wait up to four weeks for a routine appointment; the Willow Group are continuing to actively recruit new GP's, promote alternative clinician services where appropriate and use Locum GP's to alleviate some of this pressure. Although we do offer the flexibility of patients being able to attend any of the Willow Group surgeries, we do understand that some patients would prefer to see a particular GP or attend their preferred site. We also offer our Same Day Access Service for more urgent on the day issues and encourage our patients to inform the Care Navigator if they feel this is required so they can be added to the triage list and contacted the same day by an appropriate clinician. If a patient is unable to attend any of the surgeries within the Willow Group for an appointment due to a medical problem or being housebound, we do ask that they inform the Care Navigators that they require a home visit from a clinician as we do offer an Acute Visiting Service every day for these patients. Appointments are released every day for a variety of clinicians and appointment types; we release appointments as early as 4:30am online via patient access as we do understand that not all of our patients are able to contact the surgery when it opens to book this due to work and other commitments. We also advise patients that it is also worth checking throughout the day for appointments as we do get cancellations. Patients can also complete an EConsult via our website, www.thewillowgroup.nhs.uk which the GP will respond to by 6:30pm the next working day. Patients can also use Patient Access to view their medical records, request a prescription and message the surgery, as well as book appointments for a variety of clinicians. If you are not registered for Patient Access and would like to have this set up, please bring ID with you to the surgery at your earliest convenience where a Care Navigator can set this up for you. Unfortunately I cannot respond individual cases on NHS Choices, but if you would like to discuss your concerns regarding the waiting lists further please contact my team on FGCCG.mywillowexperience@nhs.net with your full name and date of birth and we will be happy to look into this for you. We are sorry that you are unhappy with the service provided. I hope I have gone some way to reassure you and if you would like this to be looked into further please do contact me. Yours Faithfully, Natasha Dalton Patient Experience Advisor