Balham Park Surgery
236 Balham High Road, London, Greater London, SW17 7AWContact details and opening times
Patient ratings and reviews
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Reviews
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Review titled Hard to get hold of
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 22 July 2024
I left a review of the surgery stating how hard it was for me to simply get in contact with the surgery. This was the response: If you would like to discuss your concerns further, please contact the practice and ask to speak to the Practice Business Manager This response perfectly sums up the issue with this surgery. “Please get in contact” - but no advice as to how to get in contact. How do I get in contact with a surgery which has endless waits on the phone (and previously I’ve waited on the phone only to be told when I finally get through to someone that I have to go via their online system); no way to get in contact online out of office hours; and when I have tried to get in contact via their online forms during office hours, they don’t get back to me. To the Practice Business Manager of this surgery, rather than write these public responses to criticisms which don’t actually help in any way - get in contact with me via my email address. You have it. I would like to discuss my concerns further with you, so please email me. And tell me in the email how we can actually speak to each other.
Visited July 2024
Review titled Balham Park Surgery
Replied on 22 July 2024
Thank you for leaving us a review. Unfortunately as you have posted your review anonymously, we have no details of who you are or how to contact you. If your previous review was also posted anonymously, this would again be why we haven’t been able to contact you. If you want to discuss your concerns further, you can email the Practice Business Manager Joanne.foley2@nhs.net Kind regards Jo Foley Practice Business Manager
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Review titled Excellent service for over 20 years
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by joanna - Posted on 11 July 2024
Our family have used this practice for over 20 years and always been very impressed and certainly by comparison with what I hear of other local practices. The Care navigators are always helpful (as were the receptionists who they have replaced) and whilst Balham Park Surgery along with every other practice have now gone over to booking appointments using an online system and I was very reluctant to try it, I have now used it twice and been extremely impressed with the speed and quality of response and where needed the speed of call back from the doctor and offer of a face to face appointment within 2 days. I am also assured that this service is allowing them to answer the phones in a shorter time to support patients without access to the digital world The high number of GP registrars v partners means that they are up to date with the latest ideas and keen to be thorough. In addition I have been impressed with their liaison with our local hospital where many of them have been training up until now. To give an example I had a minor issue with a thumb and was offered a 30 min appointment 4 days later with the excellent in surgery Physiotherapist who examined it gave me exercises and advice and requested an xray to rule out arthritis, a few days later the GP rang me to say she had checked the xray, ruled out arthritis and would be doing a referral to the hand unit, she did this as well as pro-actively letting another dept at the hospital who have to be involved in any procedures that I have know what is happening. As a result less than 3 weeks after the initial appointment with the physio I was in front of a specialist nurse practitioner having the procedure that I needed to cure the issue. I feel that at a time when everyone has horror stories of problems with the nhs and especially the care offered by their GP, Balham Park Surgery is continuing to provide excellent care and using innovative ideas to improve what they offer to their patients
Visited July 2024
Review titled Balham Park Surgery
Replied on 16 July 2024
Dear Joanna, Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. Your feedback will be shared to the wider team. We are very pleased to hear that you have had such positive experiences at our surgery. The change over to an online system was a complex and difficult decision to make, however I am glad to hear that you are seeing the benefits of this new system. Again, thank you for your review! Kind regards Jo Foley Practice Business Manager
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Review titled Nice doctors, lovely nurses, terrible admin
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 12 July 2024
I went to have a simple routine procedure. Could not be done at the surgery. Got referred to a hospital. Took seven months to get the appointment. On the day I wasn’t sure if I could attend (for medical reasons), the so called helpline couldn’t help. Had to cancel the appointment online. Now I have to go back to Balham Park Surgery’s online system to try to start the process again. Cannot book an appointment online if I’m doing the booking “out of office hours”. (Madness, the point of doing something online is it doesn’t have to be done in office hours when everyone is busy. The appointment is for during surgery hours, but I should be able to book it online any time). Unbelievably frustrating and time consuming. All for a very routine appointment around standard contraception. The fact it can’t be done in the surgery in a timely manner is ridiculous. Balham Park Surgery used to be well run, it’s now getting increasingly time consuming and confusing to get the simplest of things done there. Nice doctors, lovely nurses, terrible admin.
Visited July 2024
Review titled Balham Park Surgery
Replied on 16 July 2024
Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. I am sorry that you were unable to attend your hospital appointment. We are not able to change the hospitals process when a patient does not attend. We are required to re-refer you back into the service. Unfortunately we are unable to offer all medical services to patients. We are restricted and therefore have to refer to secondary care. To ensure that we are dealing with daily demand considering our overall capacity, we have made the decision to keep the online form switched off out of our opening hours. This is the same as when we were taking queries and requests by telephone. If you would like to discuss your concerns further, please contact the practice and ask to speak to the Practice Business Manager Kind regards Jo Foley Practice Business Manager
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Review titled Disappointing Experience
Rated 3 stars out of 5
by Nicola - Posted on 18 June 2024
I have always had fairly good experiences with this practice and its staff. However today I requested an urgent appointment and the phone consult was disappointing for a number of reasons. I found the doctor extremely dismissive and condescending. I’m having an acute episode of stomach pains and she offered an appointment in a few weeks time to discuss it further. I had to probe her for more recommendations on how I can manage symptoms. She didn’t even ask basic questions like “what makes it worse”, “what makes it better”, “can you describe what it feels like”. I was even surprised she didn’t give advice on when to attend A&E if I’m getting certain symptoms. Essentially I felt worse coming out of the consult than I did going in and like they either didn’t care or had no idea what they were doing (which I’m sure is not the case but importantly this is how they made me feel).
Visited June 2024
Review titled Balham Park Surgery
Replied on 02 July 2024
Dear Nicola, Thank you for taking the time to leave this feedback. I am very sorry that you have not had a good experience with the practice. I would like to discuss this further with you. If you would like this, can you please contact the practice and ask to speak to the Practice Business Manager? Kind regards Jo Foley Practice Business Manager
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Review titled Website(s)
Rated 3 stars out of 5
by Ken - Posted on 26 June 2024
Although I consider myself computer savvy, it would be helpful for the practice to have user guides (written in plain English and with screenshots) on both of it's websites to enable practice users to fully interact and be in partnership with the medical centre re being a patient...... The websites are not clearly signposted at present for patient interaction, and I have today wasted valuable time of my own and also the receptionist who I phoned to get help.
Visited June 2024
Review titled Balham Park Surgery
Replied on 02 July 2024
Dear Ken, Thank you for leaving this review. Your feedback to us is very helpful in making our online platforms more user friendly. If possible, I would like to discuss your experience further with you. If you would be able to contact the practice and ask to speak to the Practice Business Manager, we can then have a further chat. Kind regards Jo Foley Practice Business Manager
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Review titled “Phone death loop”
by Tom kujawa - Posted on 28 May 2024
Phoned 111 with a health issue whilst away from London. They said would need to contact a local GP service, and told us to contact you a BPS in order to facilitate. When I contacted you (having been through both of your phone queues) was told that 111 had got it wrong as BPS doesn’t provide that service. Had to call 111 again (another 20 mins phone queue) and had to go through the system all again giving exactly the same details and highlighting that BPS doesn’t provide the said GP referral service to eventually be referred. (Btw, still waiting to be called back back from the BPS team as per promise looking to resolve the death loop finger pointing )
Visited May 2024
Review titled Balham Park Surgery
Replied on 28 May 2024
Dear Tom, Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. I am sorry that you are struggling to access healthcare whilst away. I have tried to call you back to advise on what to do in this situation, but have not been able to make contact. Unfortunately you have been advised incorrectly, but I would like to help to get the care that is needed. Kind regards Jo Foley Practice Business Manager
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Review titled Bad support from Receptionist
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Joanna Ballintine - Posted on 13 May 2024
Today I visited the surgery, ten minutes early for an appointment, only to be told I was late and that therefore the appointment had been cancelled. I had made the appointment by telephone and written the time in my diary. Apparently this was the incorrect time, so I was 20 minutes late instead of ten minutes early! I said to the receptionist that I was feeling very unwell and could I wait incase one of the Doctors could see me. There was a firm no from the receptionist and I was told that I would have to wait a couple of weeks for another appointment. I told her again that I was feeling unwell and she told me to complete the triage form. I asked if she could give it to me and she told me it is the online form. I explained I was feeling very unwell and could she complete the form for me whilst I was standing with her. It says on the website that reception staff can do this. She told me that I was capable of doing it myself and I explained that as I was feeling unwell, I was not capable. She told me that as I had done it before I was had proved I could do it and that I should do it again myself. I explained that when I did the first form I was not feeling nearly as unwell as I was feeling now. She agreed reluctantly to write the form, typed a little and then told me it was done. I asked her why she had not asked me how I was feeling so the Doctor would be able to ascertain the urgency and she said that she had written that I had missed my appointment and therefore needed another. I said to her that this was not ok and to write what was actually wrong. She said "you could have done that yourself" - she typed a little more and said she had added it - but I have no idea if this was the case. This is not the first time that this has happened. A couple of months ago, during an acute allergic reaction to a drug, I was told by the receptionist on the phone to fill out the trauma form online and that I would be contacted within 48 hours. I simply wanted to ask a Doctor for some medication to settle the reaction. There was a flat refusal to move outside of the process and resulted in me having to call an ambulance. I was later contacted by the Practice Manager who apologised for the lack of an appropriate response to someone in need of an immediate consultation. The Doctors at the Practice are incredible and I have no qualms in recommending them - I have been a patient for 30 years, however, the reception staff appear to be very poorly trained and as "gate-keepers" they have elevated themselves to that of "decision makers" who decide when situations require immediate further support. It seems their default position is to send patients to A and E and saturate an already vastly overrun service. The new triage system is impersonal and inflexible and for older people or those who are not computer literate it is completely user unfriendly. I am sad to see that this wonderful Practice has become shambolic and unfriendly in the hands of some of the receptionists.
Visited May 2024
Review titled Balham Park Surgery
Replied on 20 May 2024
Dear Joanna, Thank you for taking the time to leave your feedback on our review page. I apologise that you have not had a positive experience with the surgery. I understand that my Operations Manager has been in touch to discuss the incident and investigate. If this is not the case, please do contact me at the surgery. Kind regards Jo Foley Practice Business Manager
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Review titled Mixed experience
Rated 3 stars out of 5
by Eamonn McBride - Posted on 04 March 2024
I’ve had mixed experiences at Balham Park Surgery. All the Doctors and Nursing staff I have seen have always been lovely, professional and very helpful but I’ve had other instances such as requesting a sick note and being told no one can look at my request for ten days, despite explaining that this risks me being put down as unauthorised unpaid leave at work (during a recession and cost of living crisis), and I also had some investigations at hospital, the results were sent to me GP as I can see on my NHS app but it’s been over three weeks and no one has contacted me to discuss them. Instances like this really impact patient experience and cause additional stress.
Visited March 2024
Review titled Balham Park Surgery
Replied on 25 March 2024
Dear Mr McBride, Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. I am sorry that your recent experiences at the Surgery haven't been entirely positive. I am glad to hear that our clinical team are providing you with good care. With regards to your sick note request, these can take up to 10 days to process but are always backdated. We do advise patients when having blood tests that they need to make contact with the surgery regarding the results. If results are of concern, we do actively contact patients. If you would like to discuss anything further with me, please do contact me at the surgery. Kind regards Jo Foley Practice Business Manager 02087728772
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Review titled GPs present lack of sufficient knowledge and care
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 17 April 2024
I rarely do reviews, especially negative ones. That said, I must shed a light on this particular issue as I find GPs approach unacceptable and – to some extent – even ignorant. I have been with the surgery for about a decade now. Despite young age, I have been suffering from many health issues related to thyroid, stomach, etc. 90% of GPs I have had an appointment with present (to this day, may I add) a low level of knowledge dismissing my symptoms and other detailed blood tests that I had to pay for (yes, pay for!), saying (and I quote): 'But you're young' or 'We're not doing this test here' (which is very dismissive). I have been raising some very serious symptoms from last year, they only ever scheduled two tests without an ability to connect dots to my current outstanding health issues.. Fast forward to 2024, we still know nothing (i.e., zero diagnosis), and they've been scheduling the very same tests, and all I'm reading in messages is 'your X test and X tests are both normal' (of course they'll come normal if we're repeating the same tests within only few months apart); they don't even try to follow up or investigate the matter further themselves even though above symptoms have been persisting since last year, and I'm the one who constantly feels like something is wrong, but can't quite understand what it is as GPs don't care enough to dig deeper.
Visited February 2024
Review titled Balham Park Surgery
Replied on 20 May 2024
Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. I am sorry that you have not received the care you need. Can I ask you to please make contact with me at the Surgery, so that I can assist you with your complaint and look into your concerns. Kind regards Jo Foley Practice Business Manager
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Review titled terrible care navigation and impossible appointments
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 19 December 2023
It's approaching impossible to get an appointment with the surgery despite having an acute medical problem that needs immediate care. I spoke with the care navigators twice and in both instances they ignored the details of my situation and told me I would have to wait 10 days for a telephone appointment - suggesting, in fact, that I should be grateful to have even this. It has been an appalling experience and the worst medical experience in memory. I am without any recourse as I am unable to speak with a Dr as we approach Christmas.
Visited December 2023
Review titled Balham Park Surgery
Replied on 25 March 2024
Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. I am sorry that you have not had a very good experience in making an appointment with us. Since you posted your review, we have made significant changes to the way patients can request an appointment. Please see our website for further information www.balhamparksurgery.co.uk If you wish to discuss any of your concerns further, please do contact me at the surgery Kind regards Jo Foley Practice Business Manager 02087728772