Doctors' surgery at The Gardens

[edanna]

Like many others on the forum I'm a disaffected patient of Melbourne Grove Medical Practice and I've often seen the practice at The Gardens recommended here. Does anyone know what the baby clinic and health visitor are like there? I really like the health visitor at MG and some of the others I've encountered are rather grumpy! Thanks in advance....

[Cora]

If you've got a young baby and a good health visitor I would stick with them until the baby is older... then move...in my experience good health visitors are hard to come by (or at least ones who have any time for you) - I had a fantastic one, changed drs and now get no support from the health visitors.

[edanna]

Thanks Cora, that's what I'm worried about. Can anyone recommend a practice with a fab Health Visitor?

[albert]

The Gardens surgery is fantastic. All the doctors are excellent. The baby clinic is great, and when I last had a health visitor they were great too. Only problem is there may be a waiting list to get in.

[dianecollins]

The heath visitors from the gardens are very helpful and lovely people.

[samstopit]

I agree. We've only been in ED a few months and were lucky to move in very close to the doctors surgery at the Gardens. I was amazed at how much support the health visitors have given me compared to where I was before.

[crispy]

sorry to diverse slightly, ( I don't use the health visitor or have a baby), but the Gardens is my surgery.I have found the nurse very rude ( had 2 appointments with her)...she is incredibly unhelpful and sarcastic, i would write exactly what she said, but it's not possible without mentioning my "personal" queries, which i am sure you all don't need to know!...has anyone else found this?....

[cdonline]

crispy Wrote:

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

> sorry to diverse slightly, ( I don't use the

> health visitor or have a baby), but the Gardens is

> my surgery.I have found the nurse very rude ( had

> 2 appointments with her)...she is incredibly

> unhelpful and sarcastic, i would write exactly

> what she said, but it's not possible without

> mentioning my "personal" queries, which i am sure

> you all don't need to know!...has anyone else

> found this?....

Nope. Saw her yesterday about jabs to go to South Africa. She was a bit unwell, but seemed in good sorts to me.

[samstopit]

Is the nurse the woman who gives you the once over when you join the practice? If so I thought she was ok, quite chatty and friendly. Masybe not the same one as crispy saw.

We phoned the surgery at 6pm one Monday night (they open until 8pm on a Monday) and they saw our little boy within an hour even though it wasn't clear if there was anything serious wrong with him. The doctor we saw was one of the partners and we were impressed with the way she dealt with it, she took us seriously but reassured us and sent us on our way with some good advice.

[byngo]

My family is registered at the gardens. I cannot praise the doctors highly enough, in fact one of them saved my little baby daughter's life by recognising I was not just a over anxious first time mum and taking my concerns seriously. She sent us to hospital and luckily my little girl got the life saving treatment she needed. The health visitors are very kind although we don't visit baby clinic much as there is usually at least an hour wait, if not more. It's a small practice so you get to know all the doctors and receptionists and they are all, without exception, lovely. I have to say as well, the nurse is fab. She's friendly and very quick at injections which again, when you have a little one, makes the trauma of giving them injections slightly more bearable.

[veryseriousgirl]

crispy Wrote:

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

> sorry to diverse slightly, ( I don't use the

> health visitor or have a baby), but the Gardens is

> my surgery.I have found the nurse very rude ( had

> 2 appointments with her)...she is incredibly

> unhelpful and sarcastic, i would write exactly

> what she said, but it's not possible without

> mentioning my "personal" queries, which i am sure

> you all don't need to know!...has anyone else

> found this?....

I had the same experience with her - it was my new patient screening, so first contact with the practice and has made me loath to go back. Our session started with her making strange comments in response to my answers to her questions, eg "You work in the City? I can tell you don't work full time" (I do) and "You say you drink this many units a week - I think it's more" (based on the CCTV camera Southwark has installed in my front room, I guess?) and just went downhill from there. Good to see that others have had positive experiences, though.

[carolyn]

I've also had a bad nurse experience at The Gardens (really rude and unprofessional during my gyno exam, way to make an unpleasant experience even more so!) BUT have found the other nurses I've seen there and all the doctors to be really great so I'm willing to overlook that experience as a one off. The quality of care I've received there 9 out of 10 times far outweighs one bad experience.

[AcedOut]

I've had nothing but good experiences there with both the Doctors and nurses. Booking an appointment in advance can be a long wait (in comparison to private practises), but other than that I would recommend. I'm not sure if there is more than one nurse, but the one I saw for my screening was really friendly. She asked me questions about where I work etc, but I think those are standard life-style questions.

If you have private medical insurance, remember to always tell the Doctor before any referral, as this can really speed things up!

[carolyn]

i've definitely seen more than one nurse in my time there and one is super nice and the other is less so

[espelli]

I've recently become a patient there and the person I saw for my new patient check was very abrupt and made me feel rather uncomfortable. I put it down to her maybe being new and shy as she didn't seem to be intentionally unfriendly. I have only seen one doctor but she was brilliant, very friendly and approachable and was very thorough in making sure I knew what the practice could offer me etc. The reception staff have been very nice too. I'm willing to overlook my first experience as a one off and not something I am going to repeat anyway.

[Pugwash]

All GPs and nurses I have been in contact with are helpful and professional