Norton Medical Centre
Billingham Road, Norton, Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, TS20 2UZContact details and opening times
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Reviews
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Review titled Shocking
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 28 February 2023
I have been trying to contact the surgery with an ongoing problem they havnt sorted over the past year and keep fobbing me off Today the pain has gotten so bad rhat ive taken time iff work so thought i would be on the ball and ring at 830, shocked to hear id got straight through but then to hear the message - all appointments for today have gone - how on earth does that happen and how are people supposed to ger seen My problem has got that bad im actually worried it is something serious, urgent care wont see me because its been ongoing for more than 2 weeks I would not recommend anyone to use this practise Why they took away the token facility is beyond me at least then i could go at 8 and know i would get at least a phonecall Instead all i have to do is suffer
Visited February 2023
Review titled Norton Medical Centre
Replied on 03 March 2023
I apologise for any inconvenience caused by the withdrawal of the token system. Regrettably we find ourselves in a period of unprecedented demand and, like many other Practices nationwide, we do not have the resources to match. Our Reception Team start at 8.00am to set up, perform administrative tasks and assist patients who are attending pre-booked appointments. This is facilitated by delaying the phone lines until 8.30am. It is important we do not provide earlier access to patients able to physically attend the Surgery at 8.00am, therefore we do not release appointments until 8.30am when the phone lines open for equity. Tokens were given to patients who presented at the Practice before 8:30 to keep their place in a the physical queue. Creating an additional queue did not create additional appointments, resulting in two shorter queues with frustrated patients at the end of each. This decision was made to streamline the system into one queue that all patients had equal access to, by withdrawing tokens. Patients can contact the practice by utilising the eConsult feature on our website for routine problems or administrative requests, or by calling Reception from 8.30am. Please note that like all appointments, the number of eConsultation appointments are limited, once fully booked this feature is switched off. Although we are unable to increase the number of appointments we offer beyond safe limits, we have invested in a new telephone system to make contacting the Practice easier. This includes a longer queue to reduce the chances of getting an engaged tone and offering a call back option for patients at the end of the queue. We hope these features improve patient experience, however we recognise that the system requires further updating to be suitable for the changing demand. We are working on introducing a new system in the coming months and thank our patients for their patience while this is ongoing. We are seeing increasingly complex patients because although GPs can make referrals into consultant-led outpatient services, the pressure in hospitals means there is no capacity in secondary care, and those referrals are rejected. The number of GP referrals to consultant-led outpatient services that have been unsuccessful because there are no slots available has jumped from 238,859 in February 2020 to a staggering 401,115 in November 2021 (an 87% increase). When we are unable to refer into hospital services, these patients need to be cared for by GPs while they wait for hospital treatment to go ahead, adding to the backlog in primary care. Although I recognise there is still an unmet need, local data provided by NHSE Data Quality for January 2023 (the most recent data available) showed Norton Medical Centre provided 1 appointment for every 2.23 registered patients, which is higher than the Clinical Commissioning Group average of 1 appointment per 2.40 patients. Yours sincerely, Leigh Malloy Practice Manager
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Review titled can't get an appointment
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 26 September 2023
Every time you want to make an appointment, you must call at 8am and stay on hold for hours. As I work full time, this isn't possible. After getting in touch I was told to attend the surgery at 8am to stand in a queue to make an appointment, the fact that I work full time is lost on the staff. The e-consult system is also a joke. I can't fill in the form as I'm at work and the one time work allowed me to do it, the e-consult was full and closed! This surgery is for non workers only. Find another surgery, this one is useless.
Visited January 2023
Review titled Norton Medical Centre
Replied on 08 December 2023
Dear patient, Thank you for your feedback. Please accept our apologies for the frustration you have experienced. We have listened to problems that our patients have experienced with regard to telephone waiting times and appointment availability and we have made two major changes in the past eight months, which we hope will work together to improve the service 1. A new Cloud based telephone system - with a call back facility. 50 patients have access to telephone lines. Patients 1 - 8 remain in queue, patients 9 - 50 have the option to leave their name to be called back by a Receptionist, rather than waiting in a queue. 2. In September the Practice updated the existing appointment system to a Modern General Practice Access (MGPA) model. This has changed the way patients can access appointments with either a Doctor or Advanced Clinical Practitioner. Instead of patients trying to get through to our Reception Team at 8.30am by telephone or by attending the surgery in order to book an appointment, we are asking our patients to submit an eConsultation online via our website nortonmedicalcentre.nhs.uk. This information will then be sent to a Triage Team within the Practice consisting of a Clinician and at least two Receptionists. The GP will look through the information provided by the patient and advise the Receptionist who they would be best seen by, and in what timeframe. This will ensure that our patients are seen by the correct person and should reduce the amount of unnecessary appointments. If you do not have access to the internet, please do not worry. A family member or friend can submit an eConsultation for you on your behalf. If you are still having difficulty, please contact a member of our Reception Team. Why we made these changes: • To provide a fair and equal service to ALL patients • Ensure consultations are booked in the correct timescales based on clinical need • Improve access for all patients and reduce waiting times on the telephone • Provide care to patients who have a medical problem which needs to be reviewed on the same day • Facilitate 'continuity of care' by having sufficient appointments availabelt to allow patients to be booked in advance twith the clinician of their choice where appropriate and available • Manage demand and improve efficiency • Reduce the number of patients who fail to attend appointments Call statistics now show: July 12036 telephone calls were received, compared to 6808 calls received in October, with an average call waiting time of 7 mins Yours sincerely Cath Milburn General Manager
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Review titled Very poor
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 02 January 2023
I joined the practice a few years a go having moved to the area and unfortunately the service has got increasingly poor. I have a baby boy who was poorly over the last few months. When I needed to telephone for an appointment I would call at the appropriate time in the morning and the line would either be busy, or when I got through after being on hold for between 1-2 hours the automated messaged would say no appointments whatsoever are available. This was often after ringing up to 30 times to just get through. When I had an appointment it would be telephone only, and I could be called any time during the day. The most recent time my baby was poorly I had a physical appointment following a telephone call and my sons symptoms were completely ignored as I was effectively told by the doctor they couldn’t see in to his throat and his ears were too waxy to check thoroughly. The following day I had to take him to urgent care where he was diagnosed with an ear infection and tonsillitis, both of which were completely missed. Following this I rang to ask for a further appointment as my baby got poorly again. I was simply told he could not be seen that day as they were over capacity and I would have to call back in the morning. After some begging I was told the doctor would call me the following day, and he did not. Absolutely appalling and very upsetting that an NHS service is in such a bad way. Reception staff are as helpful as they can be given the circumstances and pressures but missing an appointment for a poorly baby is inexcusable.
Visited December 2022
Review titled Norton Medical Centre
Replied on 11 January 2023
I am sorry to hear of the occasions we were fully booked to safe capacity when you contacted to request an appointment, I appreciate this can be frustrating. We, like all NHS Services, are under immense pressure and have to rely on patient's patience and understanding that we are working to maximum capacity. Each working day more same-day and future bookable appointments are released, which is why our Reception Team will advise patients to try again at a future date. The number of pre-bookable appointments is limited to ensure that patients can also access same day appointments for acute problems, as we do not have unlimited resources. We can only safely provide so many appointments each day and thus the more routine appointments we allow to be booked in advance, the less appointments there are to meet the same day needs, and vice versa. Once our appointments are fully booked to safe capacity, we prioritise triaging acutely unwell children and palliative patients. We are not an emergency service and work alongside 111 to try to meet the needs of our patients. Anyone unable to reach us who feels that they will come to harm if they do not receive medical assistance should contact 111 online in the first instance, or ring 999, where appropriate, to access emergency services. We will continue to do our best to deliver as many appointments as it is safe to do so. I am sorry that you did not receive a phone call as expected. When a patient raises a concern through our complaints procedure we can undertake a full investigation, including utilising the call recording feature where necessary. Learning points from complaints and incidents are then discussed at dedicated Reflective Practice meetings, to allow us to share lessons and improve patient care going forwards. Unfortunately, as you have left an anonymous review I am unable to investigate your claim further, but encourage you to officially report the incident to the Practice to allow me to do so. Thank you Leigh Malloy Practice Manager
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Review titled So different from what it was
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 03 August 2022
Rang today to make an appointment for up to 3 weeks in the future, no rush just required a face to face appointment with a Dr to discuss some seriously upsetting results. Told ‘No appointments for tomorrow’. I explained I didn’t expect one immediately, next couple of weeks is fine. Told no future appointments available and to ring in the morning when some ‘May be released for next week’. Seriously what is going on? There are some amazing Drs at Norton Medical Centre, to the extent I have said in the past that if I moved home I would have to stay within the catchment area as I wouldn’t want to leave the surgery but I cannot fathom why I cannot book a face to face appointment to discuss seriously worrying results within a time frame of three weeks? That seems to me to be poor patient care.
Visited August 2022
Review titled Norton Medical Centre
Replied on 09 August 2022
I am sorry to hear our future-bookable appointments were fully booked to safe capacity when you contacted Reception. Please see previous review responses which provide detail about the national GP shortage, which may help you understand the multitude of factors that result in difficulty obtaining an appointment. It is disappointing that being fully booked to safe capacity could be considered poor patient care. Although this is not the service we strive to offer, we, like many other Practices in the UK, are struggling to meet the current level of demand for our services, which exceeds our resource on a daily basis. Despite this, external statistics from NHS Digital show in April (the most recent data available) Norton Medical Centre provided 1 appointment for every 2.52 registered patients, which is higher than the local average of 1 appointment per 2.91 patients. On the day you left this review, our duty Doctor provided appointments for patients with urgent requests until 20:30, with the other GP Partners logging off at 22:24 and 23:36 after completing a full clinic, followed by administrative work such as filing blood results, clinic letters and answering tasks queries. Each working day more same-day and future bookable appointments are released, which is why our Reception Team will advise patients to try again at a future date. This is a limited number to ensure that patients can also access same day appointments for acute problems. We can only safely provide so many appointments each day and thus the more routine appointments we allow to be booked in advance, the less appointments there are to meet the same day needs, and vice versa. We are not an emergency service and work alongside 111 to try to meet the needs of our patients. Anyone unable to reach us who feels that they will come to harm if they do not receive medical assistance should contact 111 online in the first instance, or ring 999, where appropriate, to access emergency services. We will continue to do our best to deliver as many appointments as it is safe to do so. Ultimately, we do not have unlimited resources and are currently working to maximum capacity. I wish I was able to tell you that I will take the necessary action to rectify this situation, but in reality I can only guarantee that the staff and doctors at the Practice will continue to work as hard as they can to deliver the best service they are able to provide within the limitation of the resources they have at their disposal. I empathise with your frustration, as we are also frustrated. Please consider signing the British Medical Association's petition calling on the U.K. Government to provide the funding and commitment needed to urgently increase the number of GPs, practice nurses and other practice staff and to improve the premises in which they work, to request change from those with the power to make change.. The link can be found on our website.