What's going on with the phones at DMC??

[Designerjooles]

Im not sure how DMC has become so oversubscribed. Two years ago it was bad, but recently it's becoming dangerous. Yesterday i couldn't get an appointment for my 3 year old so spent half an hour waiting on the phone this morning and i am almost entirely sure that he got an appointment very late today purely because of his age. It does concern me that other people are not able to be seen, and conversely we would be going to the walk-in centre today if i wasn't able to secure a spot for him today.

[Cora]

A reminder to please phone the nhs complaints number listed earlier in the thread....you do get a response and it is all logged....

[Countrlass22]

may just do that my poor disabled husband booked phone appointment last week no call rang said not booked into system so they re booked for monday he inbetween calls had get urgent appointment at hospital they changed it to today so he waited again no call he rang to be told had been booked as go in appointment not phone appointment....

now he has ring 8am tomorrow.....and also monday they did not cancel phone appointment and change to tuesday no they left it so dr rang and we were out signal at hospital.

asked speak pratice manager and can not as she away for month or left and no replacement...........really fed up

[s.new]

I'd just like to say that I am fed up of reading all these coments about DMC as on 11th December at 6pm, patient participation group (PPG) held a meeting at DMC lead by Helen Chrown, the chair of PPG and it was a shame to see that none of you complaining actually attended to discuss your concerns and more to do with the Admin and Clinical staff. This meeting took place with no more than 10 elderly including 3 middle aged people. I dont't mean to discriminate age, but I was expecting to see more people, mothers, fathers, carers, etc, at the meeting to bring up their own concerns. Also the date, time and other info about this meeting was also put up on this forum.

Just to let you all know that the General Practice Manager from DMC attended this meeting and he has knowledge and apologises for any problems and frustrations caused to the patients by the lack of support that DMC has given to his patients and he has promised that more investments will be taking place including the employment of new admin staff, new practice manager assistant and a new telephone system is to be put in place by the middle of January which will help with appointments. To achieve all these promises, we need to all be part of PPG to put more pressure and show the high numbers of patients to the surgery to provide us as a community with the service that we require.

[curlykaren]

Its highly unlikely that working folk can make any sort of 6 pm meeting and children are eating at that time. Patients shouldn't have to go to such lengths for a decent service. If people prefer to complain via here/general NHS complaint system or however, it's absolutely their prerogative to do so.

[hpsaucey]

Why should the onus be on people ot attend on the 11th December? Personally I would have had to have taken time off to attend. Why should I use leave time to complain about a service that should work anyway? These problems have been going on for some time at DMC....I'm very happy 'complaining' or 'sharing my experiences' however you wish to word it through the channels posted by others above. Other avenues of communication are open - not limited to turning up on the 11th December...

[Jeremy]

What CK and HPS said. They should already know what the problems are. If they don't, they must be bloody stupid. Leaving work early to attend a meeting (when people already have a ton of other stuff to do) simply shouldn't be necessary.

[Monkey]

Well said, CK, HP and Jeremy.

[StraferJack]

No it shouldn't be necessary to attend a meeting but I find the attitide of

"how am I supposed to attend a meeting at 6pm- I HAVE A JOB"

perplexing.

It's 2013 and most people with an office job and a remotely sympathetic manager can be in Dulwich at 6pm. If they want to. people (with jobs and kids) will find time for christmas parties, shopping and a bunch of other stuff

the world is full of problems that shouldn't be there, and shouldn't need people to get involved but it's living in cloud cuckoo land to suggest that simply mentioning the problem will get it fixed.

people might be lucky and get a number of people appointed at DMC who will fix everything - but if people can't be bothered to turn up what's the pressure on them to do so?

[The Minkey]

I went in for an appointment at DMC Chadwick Road on Monday and was told by the GP that the system is changing so there will be very few advance appointments, instead one will need to call up, wait for a GP to call back to talk through the issue, then the GP will decide if it needs a face to face appointment or not. If yes, the appointment will be made for that day. My folks in Wales are faced with a similar system the last several years and either they can't get through or they are told there are no slots left for that day, they have to call the next day etc etc.

[Countrlass22]

Agree ps situation dmc chadwick rd now resolved

[TillieTrotter]

I'm with SJ.

[Jeremy]

Yes in theory many of us could probably leave work early and put other plans aside to get there for 6pm. The question is whether you believe it will be sufficiently constructive to justify the hassle.

[Designerjooles]

Re s.new - I had no idea about the meeting as i regularly attend DMC for my son and when i attended on Tuesday there was a notice on the noticeboard saying that the next particpation meeting was on the XX September 2013. No wonder you had limited attendance. If you actually advertised it other than on this forum (i.e. a wider reach) you may very well had more people.

In regards to the 6pm time - I am a non-working single mother and even then i can't attend! It's when my son has his dinner and bed-time.

Perhaps this is again another sign of how detached from the community DMC is!

[spider69]

Do they still receive x number of ??? for every patient registered?

If so why should they worry or change. Meeting or no meeting

Far better to complain to the NHS

[StraferJack]

"Perhaps this is again another sign of how detached from the community DMC is!"

no it's not - look, whatever time they pick there are going to be whole sections who can't make THAT time.

Jeremy - how useful the meeting is is a seperate issue. If you think it has little merit then the timing is irrelevant.

[binary_star]

StraferJack Wrote:

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> "Perhaps this is again another sign of how

> detached from the community DMC is!"

>

> no it's not - look, whatever time they pick there

> are going to be whole sections who can't make THAT

> time.

>

Exactly, it's an inconvenient and inefficient channel of communication. I looked at last year's report and many of the same issues were about then. I'll complain on here and to the NHS, it's far easier. DMC are well aware of their issues. I won't be going to any meetings I'm going to vote with my feet and hope to move to the gardens.

[SJK]

Yes sorry to add but we have had a terrible time with the DMC - have had to queue up twice in the morning to get an appointment for my baby with chicken pox. Finally got one only to witness an actual slagging match in the surgery by patients complaining they needed to be seen.

I've had a recurrent ear infection for a month and have had to take so much time off work. Made an appointment to see a doctr but have a 3 week wait now!

They say they know it's urgent but can't do anything.

I asked for a phone appt with a doctor two weeks ago and still have had no response.

Oh. - and after waiting a week for a repeat prescription. - and going in twice to ask for it - finally got it, took it to the chemist and it's totally the wrong thing!! Worrying!

[Sheppy16]

So...

I'm a father of a 7 month old boy and in September we had many reasons to visit the DMC. However, we were able to get appointments by waiting outside from about 7.40am. I'm quite shocked to read about the recent morning queues and wonder quite why that has come about? The new phone system clearly does not work, hour long phone queues are pathetic but why was the new system installed if it was to be so much worse than the previous system (which was poor)? I would have been at the meeting if I wasn't in an inflexible job but it seems the meeting wasn't really well advertised: as a patient at the practice I would have expected formal notification from the surgery itself rather than to hear about it on a forum.

Clearly something is going wrong here. The management needs either to open their eyes or to pass the job on to more suitable candidates (including some of the receptionists who are extremely rude and unhelpful). Maybe the patients at the practice (myself included) need to back off a bit and/or find another practice.

We have had excellent care at the DMC and don't wish to move practice. When I can I will complain to the NHS, but only after trying to make an appointment.

Any further details of the outcome of said meeting? Maybe the elderly people have the same issues with the system as us young parents?

[first mate]

Back in November someone on the forum was contacted by one of the co-owners who promised to rectify problems and who blamed everything on the ex practice manager. Weeks down the line it seems as though his promises were empty words.

What stood out for me was the co-owners comment that he owned many other GP surgeries, perhaps there is a clue there. I doubt that care is the primary consideration for the owners. Like Melbourne Grove surgery, it sounds like this surgery has fallen foul of the doctor turned big businessman.

Each surgery has to be run carefully and of course the pennies have to be watched but there is a fine balance between proper care and running the business side. Where a doctor starts owning multiple practices I just cannot believe that patient care is still the primary concern.

Everyone keeps mentioning the Gardens. I think I am right in saying that the partners do not own loads of other surgeries and that might be why they still offer the service one would expect from a community practice.

The same problem is happening in care homes which, increasingly, are multiply owned by care moguls-are those guys truly interested in the care of their clients? Of course not- profit is what matters.

[binary_star]

GP patient survey reporting tool (DMC COR vs The Gardens)

http://practicetool.gp-patient.co.uk/Practice/Search?id2=SE22%209EL&index=0

[Jeremy]

StraferJack Wrote:

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> Jeremy - how useful the meeting is is a seperate

> issue. If you think it has little merit then the timing is irrelevant.

I disagree with you there I'm afraid, we all make time for things if we think they are worthwhile.

[Kavanagh]

This has been reported on in Southwark News - it's on page 4 of the Dulwich & Herne Hill Edition, which is out today.

The owner of the practice has acknowledged the problems. He's also promised to take on more admin staff in January and 'digitize' the office to improve efficiency. He said 'things will improve dramatically' in a month or two.

[Penguin68]

Once you separate off management from those actually working within a GP practice your are likely to get problems (practice managers don't, despite the name, manage the practice, but the non medical processes, if you are lucky). Most commercial concerns place a local manager (of a shop, of a factory) within the local concern itself, with that manager having (within company policy) the opportunity to hire/ fire staff working on that site and direct them as to their duties.

I suspect that 'management' is not being done locally here, and thus no doctor working within the practice has any control as to what is happening within the practice.

This is not a standard commercial model for a multi-site business which operates, effectively, as a number of stand-alone mini-businesses. There, each mini-business would operate semi-autonomously - applying a commercial policy but able to make decisions about people management, filling vacancies etc. (of support if not qualified medical staff, in this instance).

I would be interested in seeing the business organigramme, (organisation chart), but I suspect that decision making power is held very centrally, with little actual 2 way communciation between the centre and the outposts, and with no local devolved power (except perhaps to a practice manager to employ admin staff - and where that post is unfilled, or filled badly, chaos will ensue).

This is not to say that multiple practice ownership is always a bad choice for the NHS, but done badly it certainly is. Funnily enough, those dreaded 'commercial' concerns that everyone is scared of entering the primary health care element of the NHS would probably know how to manage much better.

[binary_star]

Jeremy Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> StraferJack Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > Jeremy - how useful the meeting is is a

> seperate

> > issue. If you think it has little merit then the

> timing is irrelevant.

>

> I disagree with you there I'm afraid, we all make

> time for things if we think they are worthwhile.

I think that's kind of the point isn't it, that the meeting isn't worthwhile. The centre seems to have a history of bad management and yet year on year it seems to have gotten worse not better. I'll be spending my time registering at another practice.