The Gillies and Overbridge Medical Partnership, Brighton Hill, which is run by the Acorn Health Partnership following the merger of three GP surgeries, has been inspected by the Quality Care Commission who have issued it with a ‘requires improvement’ rating. During the visit, inspectors found the patient safety was being put at risk.
At the time of the merger residents were unhappy and immediately noticed problems getting appointments and confusion over which surgeries to attend. A year on and the situation is even worse. when we are out and about in the ward and in our Councillor Surgeries you tell us that waiting for 5 week for an appointment and even three weeks for a telephone appointment is the norm.
Try to get through on the phone is usually described as a “nightmare”
Your Labour Councillors are working hard to put the Care Commissioning Group under pressure to improve the performance of GP’s in Basingstoke. At the moment they don’t even monitor waiting times for appointments or getting through on the phone.
There is now a special task group looking at the situation to see what might be done. You can see Councillor Kim Taylor’s speech in the Council Chamber here https://brightonhill.online/bhtv/
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Cllr Kim Taylor
Brighton Hill Labour Councillor
This winter we reported the mayhem over the flu jab. Patients were waiting in queues even the frail , elderly and disabled only to be turned away due to lack of supplies. We asked why are you texting people to come for a flue jab if you dont have the stock?
I have been reading your latest leaflet and felt that I had to comment on the state of the GP surgeries, which has lead me here.
In the leaflet, you have stated “These problems are down to the merger with Camrose and Hackwood with waiting times of 4 weeks or more, and people waiting for an hour on the phone to make an appointment.” I feel that the statement about the issues being caused by the merger has been made in error, these issues existed before the merger and I will explain why in 2 stories of my personal experience.
STORY 1:
I had been with Gillies for a number of years before the merger, requiring regular GP appointments to manage a health condition. My GP requested that I make appointments with him every 4 weeks for medication review and to manage my health. I was never able to see him every 4 weeks as there were never any appointments available in that time frame, I would go to reception after each appointment to schedule the follow-up, each time being told that there were none available in the calendar and they were unable to book appointments more than 4 weeks in advance, each time I was told to wait a week and call to try to schedule my next appointment. I would do this and each time I would be on hold for a minimum of 30 minutes only to be told that there was still nothing available and to try again another day. This meant that I was seeing my GP every 6-8 weeks instead of the requested 4.
The final straw for me was when I was able to get an appointment from reception for 4 weeks time (wow, how unusual! I should be happy right?), and I was given an appointment card (this was when they were still hand-written). I was absolutely delighted that I had an appointment in 4 weeks instead of the going through the frustration of calling over and over. I arrived at the surgery for this appointment but was unable to check in on the screens so I waited in line for the reception desk (about 20 minutes) only to be told by the rather rude receptionist that I had missed my appointment by 30 minutes. I looked at my appointment card and it had the time I had gone to attend the appointment written down, turned out that when I had booked it the receptionist had written the wrong time on the card!! So I asked if I could see the GP if I waited, no not happening, so I sighed and said ok can I make another appointment? The receptionist told me there was nothing available in the 4 week window she was allowed to book appointments for adn to wait a week and call.
In my anger and frustration I came home and researched to see which surgery I could transfer to, the only one being in “catchment” for was Camrose. The next day I went to Camrose and registered, I was then given an appointment for 2.5 weeks by the very friendly and polite reception staff. I was delighted and didn’t have any issues making appointments with them, the wait on the phone was an average of 10 minutes or so. It was wonderful. 6 months later the merger was announced, with Gillies taking the lead, I was so upset and I knew the issues I had with them would spill over and they have.
STORY 2:
My grandma (90 at the time) was also registered at Gillies, being almost completely deaf and immobile she asked me to call the GP on her behalf for an emergency home visit appointment, again this was before the merger. I called when the phone lines opened and was on hold for almost 1.5 hours. When I finally got through I was initially told that all the emergency appointments had been taken and that I should have phoned sooner, when I complained that I had been on hold for such a long time therefore it was not my fault and explained why my grandma required a home visit I was still told that she couldn’t have the appointment, I persevered until they finally booked one for her. I couldn’t believe they had tried to deny a fragile elderly person an appointment because of their issues. Turned out I wass right to persevere as she required medical treatment.
So as you can see from my above experiences, these issues existed with Gillies long before the merger took place. I have a number of friends who have been registered at Camrose and Hackwood for a long time before the merger took place, each and every one of them has said the same thing, Gillies has ruined their experiences with their GP surgeries. I don’t know who made the decision that Gillies would be the lead practice in this merger but I believe that was the biggest mistake that was made. I believe this merger could have worked if one of the other surgeries had been the lead. They were more organised, they trained their staff correctly and their waiting times were half that of Gillies.