Attleborough Surgery
Station Road, Attleborough, Norfolk, NR17 2ASContact details and opening times
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Reviews
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Review titled Incapable of safely serving the local community.
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Lydia Rix - Posted on 23 March 2023
Incredibly small surgery for a large patient catchment area, resulting in patients being turned away, unable to seek clinician advice/treatment due appointment request processes being closed, or as the surgery put it in their online statement, "currently unavailable as all routine capacity is now full". Patients despair as their concerning symptoms/ailments don't meet the access criteria for A&E services and are above the remit of local pharmacy services. Dangerous practice such as this has dangerous consequences. How long until the local community of Attleborough pays a fatal price?
Visited March 2023
Review titled Attleborough Surgery
Replied on 24 March 2023
Thank you for your feedback. We have been working hard for a number of years with our local commissioners in order to secure the essential funds to expand our Practice facilities, so that they remain current and in line with population expansion in Attleborough. We were also part of the Neighbourhood Planning Group for a number of years and worked hard to ensure that health care provision was recognised as a priority for the local town and surrounding villages. Changes within the local and national NHS landscape have made progressing plans challenging, but we remain positive about securing better and larger facilities for the future. In the meantime, the Practice team works incredibly hard to meet the needs of our population, with demand expanding significantly, resulting in the Practice providing over 9,000 more contacts year to date when compared to the previous 12 month period. We have innovated in how we deliver care in order to achieve this additional capacity, with no additional space. The Practice will always work hard to provide on the day access for urgent same day need and where this is not possible, will signpost patients to pharmacy services, NHS 111 or the walk in centre in order for patients to be aware of alternative access where they feel unable to wait. Our routine capacity supports over 18,700 patients and this does often mean that patients do unfortunately have to wait for an appointment.
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Review titled Very poor service
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Susan - Posted on 13 March 2023
Picking up a prescription has never taken less than 20 minutes. In 3 years I have not been able to see a GP face to face. You can't book appointments in advance - forced to fill in an on-line form or queue for ages on the phone. I could go on!
Visited March 2023
Review titled Attleborough Surgery
Replied on 14 March 2023
Thank you for your feedback, which is always appreciated. Unfortunately we continue to be challenged with queue times for prescriptions, which is as a result of a transfer of all repeat prescription management for chemist patients to the Practice and issues relating to local stock availability within our local chemists. We encourage all of our patients to use the NHS app for on-line ordering, but still have a high percentage of patients attending the Practice to request their medications, which impacts on queue times. Regarding face to face appointments, these are still offered every day across all clinical groups including our GPs. Our clinical team triage all patient requests and where a face to face is deemed appropriate this will be offered, although many conditions and health concerns can be managed on the phone or by virtual appointment. In this way, our clinical teams are able to support many more patients each day that would not be possible if all of our patient contacts were face to face appointments. We hope that this response has been helpful in responding to your concerns.
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Review titled Unable to book an appointment
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 03 January 2023
Unable to speak to a real person. The appointment forms are disabled online and the reception is simply diverting to AnE or walk-in centres all the time. Unable to understand how the practice is running without being answerable to anyone. Trying to find a way to lodge a formal complaint on their website as well but seems like that’s also blocked.
Visited December 2022
Review titled Attleborough Surgery
Replied on 11 January 2023
Thank you for your feedback and we are sorry to read of your frustration when trying to contact the Practice. Our phone lines are open during core hours and our experienced reception team are available to provide help, support and advice to our patients. The Practice opens its on-line forms each morning from 6.30am and we work hard to keep these open as long as possible to allow patients to contact the Practice via this route. However, once our clinical capacity is full, it becomes unsafe to leave our forms open unless we can guarantee clinical review of the information sent to us by a patient; it is for this reason that our forms are usually switched off earlier in the morning. At this time we unfortunately have to turn off our on-line facility, requesting that our patients contact us by telephone so that we can assess each individual request that is made and re-direct patients in 'real-time' to alternative services for advice and support, unless the request is for an urgent same day issue, which we endeavour to respond to via our emergency team. Thank you also for your feedback regarding the issues you have faced when trying to lodge a formal complaint with us. We will review this as are keen to ensure that patients can still provide feedback to us, even when our clinical forms have been switched off
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Review titled Terrible care and no compasion
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Paul Downing - Posted on 26 September 2024
After relocating to the area, I visited this practice for blood tests to monitor an ongoing condition. Shortly after, I received a message stating that some of the results were borderline and advising me to contact the surgery to make an appointment. I called that same afternoon but was told my doctor would be unavailable for over a week, and that the telephone consultation would be at an unspecified time on the day of the appointment. Unfortunately, the receptionist I spoke with was rude, indifferent, and unhelpful. When I asked to speak with the Practice Manager, I was informed she doesn’t take phone calls and was advised to submit my concerns in writing. I then reached out to the doctor directly, only to receive the same dismissive and rude response. It’s deeply concerning that individuals working in healthcare, a profession meant to embody care and compassion, would act in such a way. Thankfully, I have now registered with another practice where the standard of care is exceptional. Given the numerous negative reviews about this surgery, I am baffled as to why steps have been taken to improve the service provided to patients.
Visited November 2022
Review titled Attleborough Surgery
Replied on 08 October 2024
Thank you for your feedback relating to your recent experience when contacting the Practice. We are unable to respond to specific health concerns or issues on this public platform, but we have noted your comments and are sorry for the experience that you had on this occasion. The Practice does take on board complaints and patient feedback when working to improve our services and staff training arrangements. We appreciate that any delay for a patient in being able to discuss a health concern can be frustrating and cause worry. However many discussions relating to a test result are non-urgent and can wait, without any impact on patient safety. We are always happy to receive feedback, but unfortunately the Practice Manager is not always available to receive this at the time that a concern is raised, although phone calls are regularly offered to patients who request this and are scheduled at a mutually convenient time. Thank you once again for your feedback.