‘if you had a choice to change 3 things about
the Practice, what would it be?’
Patients Comments APPOINTMENTS
Although I appreciate each appointment is valuable and hopefully most patients will too. I would hope
that if I felt I needed to see a doctor that day I would be seen. However in the past this has not been
possible.
Appointments are always running late, for example I was still waiting at 9:45 for a 9:20 appointment,
finally I got to see the doctor at 10:55am, then I was late for work! This is my experience for all my
recent visits. Maybe you should be more realistic, re the length of appointments to combat this. It is
very frustrating when you need to go to work!
Not being able to book an appointment without a long waiting time.
Due to the difficulty in making an appointment we feel there is no way of maintaining a good
Doctor/Patient relationship.
Having to wait a long time to see a Doctor of my choice ie. 7 - 10 days, I feel the personal touch is
important and has been lost in the modern system.
I have found problems in my last few visits to the surgery. I have had appointments cancelled and
rearranged without any notification. Although the staff did squeeze me in, I was then late for work.
I was very grateful for a prompt nurse appointment as I was then able to avoid travelling and waiting in
A&E.
It is not always possible to see your GP, the one who knows you and your situation.
My husband attended the surgery in the last 6 months. I did let reception know that he was not aware
you could only mention one problem. He was told as he had 2 problems he had to make another
appointment. This should be made clear to the patients please.
Need more appointments please.
On seeing a doctor he or she will say I want to see you next week. The when you go to reception the
receptionist will inform you that there are no appointments for two or three weeks, why?
Prompt appointments times required with less waiting time.
Prompt appointments available when urgent. The staff are polite, friendly and reassuring, especially
GP's, very helpful.
Really good that on the day appointments can be facilitated. A lot of practices don't do this.
Sometimes it takes a few days for the appointment with the GP by the time I see a GP I'm almost
recovered from my cold & flu.
There can be delays in appointments if you wish to see a particular doctor and too long to wait for
appointments - unless it is urgent. Why not have drop in times where you can wait too?
I need more time when I see a doctor or nurse for them to explain things. As I find now it's a strain to
listen to and understand questions, they may needed to be repeated. In this society "everyone"
mutters and grunts as I cannot hear what's been said and that includes doctors and nurses too.
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Our response
We try our best to accommodate most of our patients. We have tried to address some of the most
common concerns:
1) Timescale of Appointments:
All our routine doctor appointments are filled very quickly, on occasion it can go to a week for the next
routine appointment, if a particular doctor is requested then that time period can be longer.
We have introduced extended opening hours i.e. early mornings (Wednesday) and late evenings
(Thursday) with Doctors and nurses. This has allowed us to allocate more appointments.
We encourage our doctors to look ahead at their appointment availability before asking a patient to re
book to see them next week, we are sorry if this does not always happen.
2) Same Day Appointments
We operate a daily Triage system for patients who feel there problem is Urgent and cannot wait until
the next routine appointment. The receptionists will ask you some questions about your
problem/concern. The duty doctor on call will prioritise the patients depending on the severity of the
problem (this is why the receptionists ask for information). The doctor on call will ring the patients
back to discuss or arrange an emergency appointment..
If we had a same day walk-in appointment system doctors would not be able to prioritise patients.
Some genuine problems that require urgent attention would then be missed. We can only apologise if
you feel this service is inadequate however as a practice we feel this is the only effective way to run
this system.
3) Length of Appointment
The majority of routine appointments are set a specific time allocation. If the time was increased then
fewer appointments would be available. Appointments overrun due to the nature of the consultation
and most commonly as patients come in with a number of problems to discuss. If the latter is the case
a double appointment should be booked.
4) Cancellations
We do our best to try and contact all patients with regards to cancellations and re-arrangements. We
encounter problems when patients have changed their contact numbers but have not informed us. We
always try to offer an alternative.
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Patients Comments DOCTORS
Always changing doctors there seems to be a lot of trainees.
Doctors treat you as a person who is concerned and listen sympathetically.
GP's are always more than helpful & very understanding
What will happen to Dr Atkinson's patient when he retires, will we be given a choice or do we have to
choose another G.P.
Some GPs are fantastic, (others don't seem to have such a 'bedside manner’) and make you feel
uncomfortable in their surgery. This is reflected in the amount of time you have to wait to see certain
doctors.
Our response
We are a Training Practice therefore there will always be a change of faces. All our trainees are
supervised by a Partner and have training sessions every week. We hope that by the time they leave
their placement with Heaton Medical Centre their “bedside manner” will have improved.
The doctors' appointments can be booked from four weeks in advance. These slots can get booked
quite quickly.
All patients are registered with the practice, not an individual doctor. You can choose to see any
doctor at the surgery, doctors names are assigned to patients for the computer system or for over
75’s. When Dr Atkinson retires Lancashire Area Health Authority will allocate patients to the other
partners of the practice.
Patients Comments NURSES
On one visit to the blood nurse, I found her quite rude because I was late. It was an oversight by
myself but I didn’t need to be spoken to like a child.
When I have blood test(s) I feel the blood nurses do not have bedside manners. It's too quick and they
have taken too much blood. At the time as I felt they were too brash and I felt squeamish when I left the
room with no sugar intake!
Our response
The Phlebotomists (blood takers) are employed by Royal Bolton Hospital. We contract them for the
blood taking service. This enables our patients to have their appointment here at the surgery rather
than a trip up to Royal Bolton Hospital. The volume of blood samples taken depends on the tests your
doctor has requested.
Your comments will be fed back.
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Patients Comments TELEPHONE
Getting through on the phone is sometimes impossible. It would be helpful if we were told where on
the queue one is.
I do feel that at times it is too long a wait on the telephone before being able to speak
to a receptionist. In an emergency I would feel very frustrated at having to listen to a
message about coughs and colds, perhaps 2 different telephone numbers, or more lines
could be used to improve the system.
I worry what would happen in an emergency when the phone lines are busy.
It would be more helpful if phones were answered more quickly.
Often difficult to get a response on the phone. long waiting time.
Please have two telephone lines for patients to ring to arrange appointments.
Sometimes calls are not answered promptly and sometimes straight away.
Telephone call answered more promptly if possible.
Our response
During peak times the telephones are manned at the surgery by all Reception/Administration staff.
Early mornings are very busy and we would advise patients to ring later in the day for general
enquiries. There are 4 lines for incoming calls and 2 lines for the outgoing calls. In certain instances
the staff are required to get information about the patient and reason for the phone call, this then
allows them to deal with the call more efficiently and not appear to be abrupt, however, this can result
in longer waiting times on the line.
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Patients Comments RECEPTION AREA
Front counter too open, other patients too close can see and hear your issues.
Location of the reception desk offers little privacy.
Our response
The Reception staff are aware and trained to respect patient confidentiality therefore they will do their
upmost to respect this whilst dealing with people at the reception desk.
Patients are requested to wait at an adequate distance to maintain the privacy of the patient in front.
There is signage up indicating that if more privacy is required patients can be talked to in private, we
are always happy to ask another member of staff to speak with you.
Patients Comments RECEPTION STAFF
Some of the admin staff are very helpful and polite but quite a few need customer service training.
Admin staff are polite in person though not over phone.
Some of the receptionists are rude and abrupt.
Our response
During peak times in the surgery the staff are very busy and are trying to manage their time efficiently,
therefore you may feel that you are being treated too abruptly, this is not their intention and we do
apologise.
Our Receptionist attend training when they initially start the job. Monthly training meetings are
organised to discuss standards, improvements and to raise any concerns. If patients have any
concerns with any particular member of Staff please identify them and we are happy to deal with the
issue
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Patients Comments GENERAL
A very good practice.
Always a pleasant and friendly experience when visiting the surgery.
I always feel I'm being listened to and this is very valuable .
Clean and tidy.
Doctors, Nurses and Admin staff are always friendly and helpful. I have been well looked after and my
needs have been met.
Everything has been quite satisfactory.
Excellent service from all departments.
Faultless Service.
I am very pleased with the kind, professional and considerate service I get from all at Heaton Medical
Practise.
I feel the treatment I receive is outstanding!!
I have been with this practice a long time there have been a few downs but mostly ups I wouldn't want
to change anything .
Kindness and consideration from GPs .
My very recent experience has been exemplary on all fronts. You (the whole team) always have time
for the patients and treat them with courtesy and sensitivity.
Polite prompt service referral to hospital and other services done promptly
Staff always approachable and reassuring, very professional at all times
The surgery seems to run as a team from the reception to the doctor.
This is an excellent practice, we are lucky to be your patients.
Visiting a surgery can be a distressing event at best of times so I think that all staff should be aware of
this when engaging with patients. Patients should be treated with dignity and respect at all times not
just on one visit.
We would like to thank all the patients for their positive and encouraging comments. As a practise we
endeavour to do our best for our patients. There may be times when individuals may feel this is not the
case and we can only apologise for this, however this is never our intention. Please feel free to raise
any concerns with the Practice Manager or put a suggestion in our comments box. Our Patient
Participation Group will be forwarded any non-clinical issues anonymously for further discussion. For
more formal complaints please write in so that the matter can be investigated.
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Appointments are set at 10 minutes intervals, the doctor does try to adhere to this, if not all
subsequent appointments are then delayed. If you require more time in your appointment please book
a double appointment.
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