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Measles can spread to other people easily.
Patients who have an appointment to come into the practice should not attend if they have:
Please contact the surgery and one of our clinicians will call you back.
For more information on measles, please visit the NHS website.
We have received feedback from our patients and would like to address some of your concerns:
I cannot get through on the telephone!
In the last month, we answered 14862 calls and the average time to answer a call was 1minute 45 seconds. We made 12344 calls at this time so our phone system needs to work well – which clearly it hasn’t been.
As you are aware, we have had challenges with our phone system. We found calls were getting lost in a ‘loop’ which meant that many calls were never answered and our wait times were unacceptably long. We worked tirelessly for our phone provider to recognise our issues and we fought for a resolution. Despite assurances that this was rectified we learned from you that it was not.
We formally complained to our phone provider regarding the level of service that we (and in turn, you) had received from them and we subsequently asked them for a formal meeting to address our concerns. We asked for a very basic level of service, such as patients being told where they are the in the queue, which they were unable to facilitate, meaning you are still facing difficulties getting through on the phone.
Due to contractual obligations we have had to follow a due process before we can walk away from the system and unfortunately this process takes time. We are disappointed that a system that we were told was going to be great for our patients has let us and you down so significantly and we apologise that you have been affected by this.
We showed our phone provider our reviews on Facebook, Google and NHS Direct as a large percentage of them talk about the phone waiting times. Our reputation has been severely damaged by something we have had little control over which is incredibly frustrating for us. We have now selected a new phone provider.
Combined with this issue, we have had low staffing numbers in our reception team. We have successfully recruited a number of brilliant new receptionists. We have also lost some too. The abuse that our reception team have to deal with every day is unacceptable as patients vent their frustration with our telephone system. No matter how frustrated anyone may feel, abuse of staff will not be tolerated. While we understand people can be frustrated, or are worried about their health or a loved one’s health – abuse, insults and threats should not be a part of anyone’s job at CGH Partnership. We will be removing any patients from our list who speak to any of our staff in this manner.
I can’t get an appointment with my GP
We have a significant problem attracting GPs to work for us (and comments on social media don’t help this). This is primarily related to inadequate numbers of GPs being trained and who wish to work in Primary Care in the UK. We are not alone in experiencing this with other Practices in the area struggling to recruit new GPs too.
In 18 months, we will have lost the equivalent of 5.5 full time GPs but have only managed to recruit the equivalent of 1 full time GP in replacement. We offer a highly competitive salary and benefits package but there are simply too few GPs looking for jobs or willing to take on unprecedented levels of work.
For this reason, we have struggled to reallocate lists to other GPs because they would be significantly over the NHS recommended list size, and represent an excessive pressure on our remaining GPs of whom we do not wish to lose any more. However, we have had to do this which means that patients struggle to see their own GP as these GPs have bigger and bigger list sizes. We are currently therefore heavily reliant on using locum GPs to meet the increasing demand on Primary Care services.
Also the number of patients who make appointments but do not cancel these, then do not attend them remains a problem with lots of appointments being wasted each week. This directly affects how easy it is for patients to make routine appointments – thoughtless behaviours of your fellow patients are directly affecting you. In August a total of 464 appointments were wasted because patients didn’t attend, with 33 of these patients regularly failing to attend appointments they have made. That’s over 100 wasted appointments each week! We are not allowed to withdraw services or to charge patients for failing to attend appointments.
Unfortunately, due to the long term underfunding of Primary Care, the problems facing CGH Partnership and ultimately you, relate to the crisis in the NHS that is often in the media. We would like to reassure you that all staff and GPs are working extremely hard to provide a safe and caring service in the face of rising demands and expectations.
Complaining about our service on social media
We are currently receiving a lot of negative comments via social media with many comments made under assumed names. Naming our staff on social media is very destructive and impacts morale significantly. By doing this, there is the risk that we lose more staff which makes the problems we are experiencing at the moment worse.
We have a complaints process for those patients who have a specific issue that they need addressing, but other than this we would ask that destructive Facebook posts are resisted as they only make matters worse. There are reviews which we believe to be factually incorrect but due to confidentiality we cannot challenge these online.
We speak to hundreds of patients a day, and are so grateful to receive lots of thanks for our hard work. Unfortunately, these positive reviews are not left online so our online presence is crushingly negative. While we do not discount the negative reviews, we feel it isn’t a fair representation of all patients’ views. Our Friends and Family feedback for the last 12 months shows that 84% of our patients are happy or very happy with our service. If you have had a good experience, we would really appreciate these also being shared online.
Please would anyone who is specifically naming people or roles that they feel are not doing a good job at CGH Partnership reflect on how they may feel if it was them being widely criticised on social media in their job, without any insight into the level of work and commitment those individuals are putting in to their jobs. It is hurtful on a personal level, we lose skilled staff, and then struggle to recruit staff to replace them because prospective employees see the abuse on social media. In turn this means we are understaffed and unable to answer phone calls as promptly as you and we would like.
We fully accept there have been significant challenges in our first year, and there is still work to be done. The merging of three businesses that all operated differently is a huge piece of work and we are incredibly proud of the progress we have made. Please remember that we merged so we were able to keep all three practices open for our patients.
Some of the brilliant things we have achieved this year include:
The NHS is under significant pressure at the moment and we are trying hard to support our patients with a service that we are proud of. Positive feedback helps motivate the team but also helps us attract new clinicians in a very challenging environment. Working in different ways is key to making limited resources cover the demand that we face and also allows us to embrace modern technology effectively to look after you.
Why might we need to change our name?
Due to legal action against us we need to change our name. We will inform you of our new name shortly. (AMENDMENT: Name now changed to CGH Partnership on all correspondence (24.02.2020))
The Partners
CGH Partnership