Forest Hill Road Practice - in Meltdown ?

[ED - NAGAIUTB]

alice Wrote:

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> It's clear that something is messed up at fhr.

> its absolutely nothing to do with the front of

> house staff. How could it be?

Their surly attitude is part and parcel of the problem. The FOH staff have had an appalling reputation for as long as I can remember. The other issues within the surgery got steadily worse after the changes made to GP's practices by Labour and have picked up apace since then.

[Growlybear]

Well I think I must be going to a different practice to some other people. I have always found the reception staff to be extremely pleasant, efficient, and polite, and they have always tried their very best to help me when I've needed it. I think they do an excellent job, particularly given the way that they are treated by many patients. I was in a short queue when I was at the surgery yesterday, and two of the three people in front of me were unacceptably rude to the receptionists, but as usual, they dealt with them calmly and respectfully. I would find it very difficult to do their job with so many unpleasant people to deal with, many of whom have unrealistic expectations of the practice.

[Penguin68]

Much of the problem with the practice (and most others) is in meeting scheduling - a system which allows both real-time on-line and in-office scheduling - which has to 'cope' with 9 diaries (possibly more with non GP staff on the roster as well) - most of them not standard 9-5 meeting times, which has to cope with expected no-shows and avoid selfish over-booking, which has to leave time slots for emergencies appointments as well as for routine elements is actually non-trivial - and amongst other things a good system has to incorporate queuing theory algorithms.

In the recent past the system, as far as I can gather, has had management interference to suppress and then release appointment slots to avoid (I am guessing) people booking up too far ahead on the off-chance that they will need to see a doctor in the future. It has also relied on office staff triage to judge both urgency and appropriate level of medical support - and these are not necessarily fully trained people in triage systems.

The most recent problems (again I am guessing) may be an attempt to get a 'clean start' when a new booking system is introduced so that its value can be more immediately judged. This may (or may not) be a good idea.

At least I am getting text alerts to remind me of appointments (and these are also logged on the IT system - which does seem to work for repeat prescriptions). Not all is uniformly bad, some things may even be improving. We may just be in an uneven transition period. At least the practice is trying to change - which suggests it is aware that problems exist - that not all the changes are necessarily always positive on all fronts is, I'm afraid, pretty typical of process changes. And existing staff (who will always resist change, that's just a rule of thumb, unless they are the authors of it) may not be responding well in a transition period.

Amended to add - my experiences more closely match those of Growlybear (above) than others on this thread. Maybe I've just been lucky.

[JoeLeg]

I can only speak from personal experience, but while I've found the reception staff quite reasonable in person, on the phone they are pretty unpleasant.

When I spoke to them last week regarding an appointment for my youngest kid, they made it plain that if she wasn't in pain them they wouldn't even think about seeing her for several weeks. Now I don't mind being told that, but the way the receptionist spoke was frankly rude.

[DadOf4]

My 11 yr old son has a knee injury, he's been for some (private) physio and theyve said he now needs to see a speciist

Theyve written to his doctor (FHR) and outlined the problem, asked for him to be referred and suggested that he sees a specilaist at Kings (they even suggested in the letter which clinic at Kings he needed to go to)

Two aspects to this post:

1)can anybody advise me whether Forst Hill Road will just process that requesust for a referal, or do we need to actuallt go and see a doctor in order for them to process it ?

2) Second aspect to this post is to share that the only reason that I have had to post this is becuase the staff at FHR didnt knoe the answer, which amazed me.

They told me, "we should process it, but if you want to make sure, you need to see a doctor". I said "but I dont want to take up an appointment if you're just going to do it anyway". The answer to that was "do you want an appointment or not?"

The soonest apointment they can offer is 3 weeks away and I fear that making an appointment may actually put the referal process on hold (and, as youd guess, the FHR staff didnt know whether that was the case or not)

what a mess

[Jacqui5254]

God, I feel sorry for the FHR reception staff.

[Callie]

DadOf4 Wrote:

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> They told me, "we should process it, but if you

> want to make sure, you need to see a doctor". I

> said "but I dont want to take up an appointment if

> you're just going to do it anyway". The answer to

> that was "do you want an appointment or not?"

I would ring them & book a telephone consultation with the GP about the referral. Dr normally rings you back at a certain time. Not sure if FHR have this service but worth asking. Also if you can't get a proper answer from the reception staff - contact the Practice Manager, hopefully they should be able to sort it out for you. If you are not happy about something you should tell the practice manager as that's what they are there for.

[Callie]

Jacqui5254 Wrote:

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> God, I feel sorry for the FHR reception staff.

me too

[EDmummy]

In this case I think the Reception staff have give you the correct information based on their non-clinical role. Saying that, when I've been in this situation, I've arranged a telephone appointment and a referral has been done by the GP without having to see the patient. I would recommend telephoning a week or two later to make sure the referral ahs been sent and also with the receiving clinic, that it's been received (poor processes at both ends means that sometimes referrals aren't received). You will then have to wait up to 3 months to be seen by the clinic. If its an orthopaedic problem, it may be the case that services have been commissioned at a different hospital than the one you want to be referred to so you must make sure with the GP that you are referred appropriately.

DadOf4 Wrote:

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

> My 11 yr old son has a knee injury, he's been for

> some (private) physio and theyve said he now needs

> to see a speciist

> Theyve written to his doctor (FHR) and outlined

> the problem, asked for him to be referred and

> suggested that he sees a specilaist at Kings (they

> even suggested in the letter which clinic at Kings

> he needed to go to)

>

>

> Two aspects to this post:

>

> 1)can anybody advise me whether Forst Hill Road

> will just process that requesust for a referal, or

> do we need to actuallt go and see a doctor in

> order for them to process it ?

>

>

> 2) Second aspect to this post is to share that the

> only reason that I have had to post this is

> becuase the staff at FHR didnt knoe the answer,

> which amazed me.

>

> They told me, "we should process it, but if you

> want to make sure, you need to see a doctor". I

> said "but I dont want to take up an appointment if

> you're just going to do it anyway". The answer to

> that was "do you want an appointment or not?"

>

> The soonest apointment they can offer is 3 weeks

> away and I fear that making an appointment may

> actually put the referal process on hold (and, as

> youd guess, the FHR staff didnt know whether that

> was the case or not)

>

> what a mess

[tasha1]

I've been a patient here for my entire life (49 years). I Have serious health issues and often need to see a doctor or nurse practitioner urgently. Whenever I call, I am seen the same day or the following day. Maybe because I know the reception staff, they always gp out of their way to help. I've never experienced rudeness, ever. From what I've been told, there are a few issues going on. They had one doctor leave the practice and another went on maternity leave. They tried and tried to get cover but couldn't. This meant they were two full time doctors short. It wasn't an issue of resources. The funds were there to pay a locum GP but no one took either post. They are very aware that their current appointment system is a disaster and they are trying to rectify this by introducing a new system (don't know what that will look like though). Some staff are working way over their contracted hours to try and keep things ticking over as. Best they can but it's exhausting and exasperating for them too. I'm not trying to distract or belittle the terrible service some feel they've experienced but they are aware things are far from ok for their patients or the staff. Hopefully the new system will be more effective for everyone

[nxjen]

Many thanks tasha1 for your more fully rounded and informative post about the difficulties, it seems the practice is suffering from the national problem of a shortage of GPs. I see that one doctor who left a couple of years ago has now returned.

ETA Not sure if this is a result of the new system, but I've just phoned and managed to get an appointment for next week.

[alice]

Tried for an app early this morning - got one for 9.50 - with a brilliant new doctor. So flukes aside looks like things are on the up.

[peckhamside]

I have not read all these posts, they do have an on line prescription request service but it is not fully reliable.

I have also found organization by back office staff at FHR very frustrating, in practice you need to make on the day appts. Need to be very organised to get an appt. at all, which is hard when ill. I used to go and sit and wait but they now only see those who book by phone although at least it is now a local number not a premium rate line!!

[Fjgb]

I was at the doctors today to drop off a repeat prescription and booked an appointment with a practice nurse at the same time for next week which suits me. I read the 'spring newsletter' whilst I was waiting and it seems like there are 2 new doctors who are both part time but make up 1 full time doctor, plus 2 new trainee gps. Also the new booking system launches in April 1.

[sheilarose]

The new booking system was launched today. I rang up and made an appointment for my daughter in a week 's time. No problems. Fingers crossed that they've cracked it now and will keep it up in future.

[spark67]

Rang this morning and got an appointment for 10.30 am no problem, which took me by surprise, and saw a lovely Dr who really helped with my problem, happy patient here.

[Fjgb]

I finally signed up to the online booking system last week and got an appatentl okay. Saw a new doctor Dr Torabi, who was very nice and got the referrals I neeeded easily and without problems. Today I am pretty happy with the service!

[intexasatthe moment]

Well I'm not ...some of their patient service officers could do with some training .