Pembroke Medical Group
Pembroke House Surgery, 266 Torquay Road, Paignton, TQ3 2EZContact details and opening times
Patient ratings and reviews
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Reviews
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Review titled Dissapointed with answer
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 02 May 2023
My husband rang about his change of medication after heart op only 7 days ago he was anxious as reception said no discharge letter received I handed it in personally .I rang to help saying I had put att of Dr on envelope would that help them finding it receptionist upset me by saying I don't know why he is stressed I explained to him .My husband was stressed as it's a week since new valve in heart and concerned they could not find discharge paper with new prescription felt could have been dealt more sympathetically .
Visited May 2023
Review titled Pembroke Medical Group
Replied on 16 May 2023
We are sorry to hear of your experience. Do please contact us at enquiries.pembrokehouse@nhs.net with your details so that we can look into this further for you.
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Review titled Great Doctors and nurses, poor reception staff.
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 15 May 2023
The Doctors and nurses are great, when you get to see or speak to them. First, however, you have to deal with the receptionists, they ask you tell them your most personal issues in front of a que of other patients. Going to the Doctors is already an anxious time and the receptionists don't seem to care about that. Please can the surgery train their receptionists in mental health awareness and caring behaviour. There are signs everywhere that aggressive behaviour or language won't be tolerated towards staff, rightly so, however, it appears that the receptionists can speak to us patients rudely and create a negative response, yet that is acceptable. As for the phone lines, 25 minutes waiting on the results line at 2nd in the que. When I got through it took 2 mins to get my results, even with all the laughing and joking going on in the background. There also appears to be no handover between morning and afternoon receptionists, if you need to follow up from morning to afternoon, nobody knows what you are talking about. A receptionist even filled out a form the other day which stated at the top 'to be filled out by the GP only'. Please Pembroke, back up your excellent Doctors and nurses by getting some kind, caring and approachable receptionists and start being patient focused instead of considering us as a nuisance. We are at our most vulnerable when we are physically or mentally unwell, please have a heart and treat your patients how you, yourself, would wish to be treated. Covid is absolutely no excuse. The cracks in this surgery were starting to show long before Covid, Covid was just the wedge that has opened them up beyond acceptance. Be the best you can be and then others will see the best that you are.
Visited May 2023
Review titled Pembroke Medical Group
Replied on 26 July 2023
We are sorry to hear that you have found our reception team to be rude and unhelpful. Unfortunately, due to demand for consultation being higher than the appointment capacity available the GPs at the practice have introduced a system of clinical triage to ensure that requests are dealt with according to clinical urgency. Therefore, the receptionist will need to lead patients through a series of questions to gather the information required by the clinical to assess priority. In March 2023 we launched a new online consultation request system called Klinik. Patients with internet access via a smartphone, tablet or home PC can submit a request for consultation online without the need to telephone the practice or disclose information to our reception team. We have also installed tablets at both of our reception sites for patients who do not have internet access at home to utilise. If you do not have internet access and do not wish to use the tablets provided in practice to submit an online consultation request, then you will need to either telephone to request a consultation or visit one of our reception desks. In those instances, the receptionist handling your request will complete the online submission on your behalf. We are aware that our telephone lines remain extremely busy and we apologise that you have had a long wait on the telephone. We invested in a new telephone system in May 2023 which has already reduced our call waiting times. We also hope that as more patients make their requests for consultation online this will reduce the number of incoming calls and waiting times further. To obtain test results, order prescriptions and view certain areas of your medical record you may find it quicker to use the NHS App rather than contacting the practice: https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-app/ We hope that this information is helpful. If you would like us to investigate a specific complaint with regards to your experience with our reception team please contact us at enquiries.pembrokehouse@nhs.net so that we can look into this further for you.
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Review titled Personalities excellent
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by jenny davis - Posted on 21 April 2023
Over the last few days I have interacted with multiple individuals and every one of them has responded with speed and sensibilities allowing me to move towards an improvement in my mental and physical health. Such kindness and understanding is much appreciated.
Visited April 2023
Review titled Pembroke Medical Group
Replied on 16 May 2023
Thank you for taking time to provide a positive review for our practice. Your comments will be shared with the whole practice team and will be greatly appreciated by them.
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Review titled Not so easy contact
Rated 3 stars out of 5
by Dave - Posted on 06 April 2023
I recently tried to speak to someone at the surgery with a couple of specific concerns. I would like to speak to someone so I can make myself understood better in person than a phone call. I was offered a complaint form. This was not helpful. I know you guys are busy but it is difficult to complete an online application. I have had to resort to writing to the doctor to get my message across. I hope things get better soon. I am still waiting for a doctor to phone me from last week. Help please. I know that the staff are working hard at their jobs but please remember we are people as well.
Visited March 2023
Review titled Pembroke Medical Group
Replied on 16 May 2023
Thank you for providing feedback. We are sorry to hear of your experience. We launched a clinical triage system on13 March 2023. This means that all requests for consultation will be screened by a GP and appointments will be offered with the appropriate healthcare professional within our team and will be based on clinical urgency. Ultimately this should provide improved accessibility for patients as, once you have made a request for a consultation, your request will be clinically triaged and you will be contacted by our team to organise an appointment with the appropriate healthcare professional within our team rather than being asked to call again the following day. The easiest way to request a consultation is online and this will avoid long waits on the telephone. However, if you do not have access to the internet or you find completion of the online form difficult you can contact our reception team on 01803 553558 and they will submit the request on your behalf by gathering the appropriate information from you. Like many other Practices in the UK, we are struggling to meet the current level of demand for our services. We will continue to do our best each day 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 safe capacity.
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Review titled Lost all faith
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 11 February 2023
You may find it more efficient to use our online consultation system and you can find the link for this on the front page of our practice website: Log in each day from work at 8am. Message at 8.02am, service temporarily unavailable… try again tomorrow… Closed Saturday and Sunday. If you work full time hours it seems that it is not possible to make contact in any way. Any advice welcome - just need an answer to a simple question and have been trying for weeks.
Visited February 2023
Review titled Pembroke Medical Group
Replied on 13 February 2023
We understand that you are unhappy with the current levels of access to appointments within the practice. We are sorry for the level of frustration that you have felt and we hope that the following information will provide some answers to the points you have raised: We understand that there are often long waiting times on the telephones to make an appointment. This is due to the high call volume which we are trying our best to get through as quickly as possible. Our receptionists answering the telephones are constantly seeing over 35 patients in the queue. We were used to seeing numbers like this at 8.00am in the morning but we are now seeing numbers like this all day, every day. Please be assured that we are trying our best to get through the calls as quickly as possible. There are times when we will not have an appointment to offer you, this is not the service we strive to offer, but we, like many other Practices in the UK, are struggling to meet the current level of demand for our services. We will continue to do our best each day to deliver as many appointments as it is safe to do so. We are currently unable to offer routine advance appointments due to the current surge in demand and can only provide a same day service. Ultimately, we do not have unlimited resources and are currently working to maximum safe capacity. Our online consultation service is currently turned off once we have reached safe capacity for that day. Unfortunately, once our appointments are fully booked, we are not able to create more. We have rearranged our clinical team, we are making use of digital GPs and we are offering as many appointments as we are physically able to whilst remaining safe. If we cannot offer an appointment at a time you want, we will try to provide an alternative where possible or signpost you to other services who can help. We will be relaunching a clinical triage system in March 2023. This will mean all requests for consultation, made online or by telephone will be screened by a GP and appointments will be offered based on clinical urgency. Ultimately this should provide improved accessibility for patients as, once you have made a request for a consultation, your request will be clinically triaged and you will be contacted by our team to organise an appointment with the appropriate healthcare professional within our team rather than being asked to contact us again the following day. Finally, we would advise that the GP enhanced access service operates on specific evenings and also at the weekends. Please visit our website for more details: https://pembrokehousesurgery.co.uk/improved-access-evening-weekend-appointments/
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Review titled Dreadful service - actually no service at all
Rated 1 star out of 5
by JAK - Posted on 20 February 2023
It is Monday morning which I appreciate is very busy but when telephoning for an appointment the message says the call cannot be connected and when trying to use the online consultation - this has been temporarily suspended. What is a person meant to do? This practice is a disgrace!
Visited February 2023
Review titled Pembroke Medical Group
Replied on 27 February 2023
Dear JAK We understand that you are unhappy with the current levels of access to appointments within the practice and are sorry for the level of frustration that you may have felt. Unfortunately, despite pandemic restrictions easing, there continue to be increasing pressures within General Practice and the NHS as a whole, which has resulted in us finding it difficult to keep up with demand for appointments. We understand that there are often long waiting times on the telephones to make an appointment. This is due to the high call volume which we are trying our best to get through as quickly as possible. Our receptionists answering the telephones are constantly seeing over 35 patients in the queue. We were used to seeing numbers like this at 8.00am in the morning but we are now seeing numbers like this all day, every day. Please be assured that we are trying our best to get through the calls as quickly as possible. There are times when we will not have an appointment to offer you, this is not the service we strive to offer, but we, like many other Practices in the UK, are struggling to meet the current level of demand for our services. We will continue to do our best each day to deliver as many appointments as it is safe to do so. We are currently unable to offer routine advance appointments due to the current surge in demand and can only provide a same day service. Ultimately, we do not have unlimited resources and are currently working to maximum safe capacity. We will be relaunching a clinical triage system from 13 March 2023. This will mean all requests for consultation will be screened by a GP and appointments will be offered based on clinical urgency. Ultimately this should provide improved accessibility for patients as, once you have made a request for a consultation, your request will be clinically triaged and you will be contacted by our team to organise an appointment with the appropriate healthcare professional within our team rather than being asked to call again the following day. Unfortunately, once our appointments are fully booked, we are not able to create more. We have rearranged our clinical team, we are making use of digital GPs and we are offering as many appointments as we are physically able to whilst remaining safe. If we cannot offer an appointment at a time you want, we will try to provide an alternative where possible or signpost you to other services who can help. We hope that this information explains how we are trying to support you as best as we can given the incredible level of demand we are facing.
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Review titled Gone down hill
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 10 February 2023
I first contacted the surgery in late January and had a wonderful experience. The receptionist was professional and polite, she fully understood my need for a Doctor to call me and this happened within 20 minutes of my call. The Doctor was great and we arranged I would call back in 2 weeks. Fast forward 2 weeks later. A rude and unhelpful receptionist who didn’t seem to understand why I was calling despite me fully explaining my previous conversation. Refused to deal with my request to have a call back from a Doctor and couldn’t seem to understand why this was needed. Receptionists are not medically trained yet seem to think they are, though when I asked further questions, she was unable to even signpost me correctly.
Visited February 2023
Review titled Pembroke Medical Group
Replied on 13 February 2023
Thank you for your feedback. We are sorry to hear of your experience. If you would like to contact us at enquiries.pembrokehouse@nhs.net with your details we will be happy to look into this for you.
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Review titled Worst medical practice in Torbay
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 27 October 2022
I have telephoned three times as requested to arrange an appointment. I have waited over twenty minutes on several occasions - and been at exactly the same point in the queue as when I started. This indicates that no one is actually answering the phone. If you actually need to see a doctor - forget it. No Patient Access despite promoting it. Please NHS - do something about this rogue practice.
Visited October 2022
Review titled Pembroke Medical Group
Replied on 02 November 2022
Dear Patient Thank you for your feedback. Firstly, we would like to offer our sincere apologies for any frustration or concern that you may feel has been caused in relation to these matters. GP practices across Devon, and indeed nationwide, are facing an unprecedented level of demand for services. This is in part due to an inevitable backlog of routine matters which were deferred during lockdown periods but is also caused by additional factors such as population growth and changing needs of patients without corresponding growth in central funding or support. As a result of this demand for our services simply exceeding resources and personnel, patients are inevitably experiencing a delay in being able to contact the practice or obtain an appointment of their choice. This is in part due to the volume of patients trying to get through every day and the number of people needing our care. To provide some context, on average each week at present we receive around 5,000 telephone calls often peaking at around 300 calls per hour. Each call is taking longer than usual to complete due to screening questions regarding Covid. In addition to the increased demand, we have a reduction in available call takers and administration staff due to the impact of self isolation rules and also the requirement to send some of our staff to operate the local vaccination centre. All of this is undoubtedly impacting on our administrative and operational functions. We understand how anxious patients must feel when they simply want to talk to someone about a healthcare concern or worry and how frustrating it is not to be able to get through on the telephone or have to wait longer than usual for an appointment. You may find it more efficient to use our online consultation system and you can find the link for this on the front page of our practice website: https://www.pembrokehousesurgery.co.uk. Our staff care about our patients and are trying to do their best to support everyone’s healthcare needs in the most suitable way despite the current levels of demand. We remain grateful to our patients for their understanding and support during this challenging time.