Tessa Jowell Centre - Can't get an appointment for vulnerable Parkinsons Patient Extremely Upset

[Scruffy Mummy]

I'm so upset. My husband has late stage Parkinsons.  He has suffered from low grade infections making him susceptable to Falls.  We have a letter from Guy's asking the GPs to send a district nurse to run a number of further tests on him but I can't get any appointment.  I keep getting the run around.  Today they rang the wrong number and then rang me but unfortunately I couldn't get there on time.  Rang straight back and receptionist said she would speak to GP.  But they never got back.  I went in there and a male receptionist was very patronising.  I don't know what to do.  This infection is really making his Parkinsons worse. Please if there is any GP out there reading the forum please message me and help me get my husband seen properly. 

[heartblock]

I have been in a similar situation with my partner and their chronic condition. I went there and sat in the waiting room until someone came to see us. I have left and gone to another GP now, my partner remains there for the time being. I think Southwark News should investigate the s**t show of this City-Boy run GP practice in this building funded by public money.

[Scruffy Mummy]

My husband  had been at at an excellent GPs practice which was the Hambledon - behind the statium and then they got merged in with Tessa Jowell GP and it was fine up untill recently... I am at a very good GPs in Camberwell... he could move to mine but the issue is that Tessa Jowell is so close to us and with his limited mobility (we don't have a car) TJ is so easily accessed and I don't want his care to fall between two stools when he is being transferred    I had a wonderful conversation with a GP there last week and she was very reassuring and said we could call anytime - not just at 8am as he had a chronic condition.  We had an appointment at Guys and they uncovered a number of things but it needs the GP to organise the district nurse.  I don't think the reception staff really understand the seriousness and when they should get the GP involved.   I think I will make a poster and sit outside in the lobby from 7:30 with a sign or something saying 'GP Help urgently required' 

[heartblock]

Yep - just sit in there until someone comes to see you, be polite but firm. 

If anyone wants to complain about GP services, the newly set up South East London ICS (transferring from the old CCG) is the place to go - they commission local services (so they are the ones paying the s**t show company for the terrible GP 'service' at Tessa Jowell)

You can make a complaint verbally, in writing or by email. If you wish to complain about a hospital, community or mental health provider please contact those directly. If you have any comment or complaint regarding the commissioning of a service please contact the Patient Experience Team at:

Email: [email protected]
Tel: 0800 328 9712 or 0208 176 5337

https://www.selondonics.org

Andrew Bland is the CEO... there is a whole website dedicated on how to complain by going straight to the CEO, I have used this tactic before with excellent results, takes a bit of time and one has to write a very professional, polite and knowledgable letter. 

[Sue]

It's very easy to change GPs. 

You just register with the new one. You don't have to tell the old one.

Just make sure you are in their catchment area. 

I understand there are particular reasons why you want to stay where you are, but sometimes other factors might outweigh these?

Good luck, I hope you get a good outcome soon x

Edited February 15, 2024 by Sue

[Scruffy Mummy]

UPDATE: I did get an appointment this morning with a lovely GP.  That's the thing - the actual clinical staff there IMO are great and get it.  She has now marked his file as URGENT now so it should flag up to the non-clinical staff.  But the fact that it was so difficult to get to talk to her - and that the reception staff just couldn't recognize the challenge  that for many people - particularly those with a disease like Parkinsons - that using apps and mobile phones just doesn't work.   And that when a carer is standing in front of their desk, they aren't intending to make the reception staff life difficult - they are worried sick about their loved one and just want some reassurance that they will be seen and supported in a timely way.  Being able to make an appointment for them for the next day or two would help - rather than being forced into this 'race for your life' to get an appointment on the app or have to stake out the doctors surgery.

Anyway, we should be getting some treatment soon from the district nurse team.

 

Edited February 15, 2024 by Scruffy Mummy

[Froglander]

Scruffy Mummy, so glad to hear that you finally got an appointment.  If you can bear to, make a complaint about what happened previously with the practice manager.  
 

Do you and your husband listen to the Movers and Shakers podcast related to Parkinsons?   

[Scruffy Mummy]

Yes, he loves that podcast!  Lots more high profile people with Parkinson's bringing awareness to it - it is a strange disease because someone with Parkinson's can manage ok for years and be out and about and live their lives with not much interruption but then when it gets to the later stages of the disease it all becomes much more stressful and worrisome. 

 

[alice]

Yes, thanks for letting us know you finally got a result.

 

[Penguin68]

It seems to be a common theme across a number of GP practices in ED (and, I'm sure, elsewhere) that the actual medical staff are in the main fine, indeed helpful and sympathetic, but that the admin people and processes seem to go out of their way to be awkward and unfriendly. They seemed focused on cost optimisation and resource rationing without any thought to issues such as Quality Of Service. They are in a sellers' market (as I have said before) and we stand as no better than supplicants (despite their mouthing towards 'customer service'). Their ideal day would be if no patients at all, ever, bothered them, so they could just focus on collecting their capitation fees. 

Hence they've made little move to get medical staff back in surgeries. Or to think at all about effective contact strategies with patients on their list (they may shout (on line or text) instructions to you, (do this, collect this form, supply this information - where the NHS rewards them for doing so), but they block, so far as they can, any inbound communication into them).

Edited February 15, 2024 by Penguin68

[heartblock]

Complain - it's the only way to have any actions.

Make it clear that the health professionals are providing a good service at the point of use, but the administration of those services is not adequate and give detail. I imagine the reception staff have been given explicit instructions to provide appointments only via the routes that they have been told to follow - they are probably frustrated as well.

[alice]

The front line staff are only doing the dirty work of the practice