Halesowen Medical Practice
2 Quarry Lane, Halesowen, West Midlands, B63 4WDContact details and opening times
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Reviews
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Review titled Not great
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 03 January 2024
This practice has gone downhill, massively. It’s gone from waiting a few days for an appointment to practically a month. Their policy when it comes to uti’s is disgusting, anyone who has had one before knows you need help urgently. Previously you could ask at reception for a sample bottle, bring it back to have the results provided same or next day. Now when you speak to them you are told “you need an appointment” and that’s that. I did this a few weeks back and was told the next appointment was just over a month away, I can’t stress enough how important it is for people with this to have help right away and so to be told that is extremely disappointing. I then asked if there were any pharmacies nearby taking place in the uti scheme, was told the only one is on Manor Lane. I wouldn’t have been told this if I hadn’t asked. It’s great that they can help but it’s not exactly easy for people to get to when having a uti makes it stressful going out. The practice need to have a better system in place or the pharmacy next door need to get involved with uti care.
Visited November 2023
Halesowen Medical Practice has not yet replied.
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Review titled Seeing a doctor
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Ann Lake - Posted on 03 August 2023
My husband has tried to get an urgent appointment to see a Doctor, after being advised by the Pharmacist next door. He rang the surgery and explained his problem and was told he could not see one for at least 2 weeks. He tried ringing the next day to see if there was any cancellations, same reply. There used to be an emergency appointment service at this surgery, this doesn’t appear to be the case any more. He has had to book an appointment with a clinic in 5 days, not near us. I am so disappointed with this surgery. I know there are issues around lack of gps etc., but he needs to be seen. There does not appear to be a service any more. Failing this, he will need to go to a&e. This used to be a good reliable surgery with excellent doctors, I feel we have lost this service. I am speechless and very disappointed overall.
Visited August 2023
Review titled Halesowen Medical Practice
Replied on 08 August 2023
Dear Mrs Lake, Thank you for your review. I am sorry to read that your husband has experienced difficulty in accessing an appointment at the practice. We offer a proportion of daily urgent appointments which are released at 8am Monday-Friday. On a Monday and Friday we offer 36 same day appointments for patients with acute medical problems. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we offer 24 urgent appointments. These patients are seen by the on call GP. In addition the on call GP will also see a further number of patients who need to be followed up as high priority for a particular health problem. The on call GP will field any urgent prescription requests or requests from secondary care organisations to include NHS 111 referrals. When the urgent appointments have all been booked, then we sign post patients to NHS 111, the urgent care centre or the Brierley Hill GP Hub, which is the provider you mentioned in your review. The Brierley Hill hub offers GP appointments to any Dudley GP registered patient. These appointments are bookable via the registered GP practice. This service was introduced to assist Dudley primary care with the high demand on services over winter and fortunately the service continues to be available on Saturdays. Many GP surgeries in Dudley utilise the Brierley Hill Hub to offer patients the option of a GP appointment, to avoid a further wait at the GP practice. We have tried many appointment systems at the practice as a response to the changing pressures that we face. Ultimately, we will always struggle to meet the high demand for appointments. We have been impacted by the national GP recruitment problem as we look to replace retiring GPs. We use locum GPs at times when our capacity is low and we are looking forward to welcoming a new GP and Practice Nurse to our team in the next 3 months. We moved away from the old system whereby patients were added to an urgent call back list because this list became unmanageable, unsafe and often meant that patients needed to be seen face to face in addition to receiving a phone call which which not effective use of clinical resource. All other appointments are book ahead and non-urgent. Currently our wait time for a routine telephone appointment is 2 weeks and 3 weeks for a face to face GP appointment. These wait times do fluctuate. We sign post patients to other clinicians where appropriate to save GP appointments to include the paramedic, First Contact Physiotherapist, First Contact Metal Health Practitioner, the Practice Based Pharmacist, Community Pharmacy Minor Illness services, Dementia and Frailty Support Services, Social Prescribers and Care Co-ordinators. I am sorry to read that we were not initially able to offer an urgent appointment. If you would like to discuss this matter directly then please do not hesitate to get in touch with me via the practice. Regards, Rose Dunnington Practice Manager