Bromley Common Practice - 1A Pope Road Bromley, Kent

[surfraider]

We have had so many problems with this doctors surgery in Bromley. Waiting times are rediculous for example this week i took my 11 month old son to the doctors. I was given an appointment at 12.00 and on arrival i asked how many people there were in front of me. I was told five and thought well thats going to be a long wait but as its for my son i will wait. Anyway after 45 minutes waiting and my son was starting to moan, pull curtains, getting hungry etc i went to receiption and asked how long (Note: i had already seen the five people go into see the Dr). I was told there are still four people in front!! I said how can this be as i have seen five people see the Dr and i was told there was only five in front. As usual these people on reception have no emotion and just repeated herself. I said how do you expect an 11 month old to wait another 45 minutes and her reply was let him play with the toys. At that point i left, got home and tried phoning the Dr Lewis to speak with her directly, but of course they take a two hour lunch and put on a recorded phone message. Luckily i remembered their fax number and so wrote a fax demanding an appointment in the afternoon. The Dr did call back and made all the usual excuses but agreed to see my son in the afternoon. My wife took my son as i could not face going there twice in one day. While there my wife asked the doctor about vaccines for our holiday in a few weeks (we had left numerous messsages over the past three weeks regarding this with no reply) and the Dr said i do not know, call NHS Direct. We did this and after an hour we was called back by a Nurse who said we need Hepatits A injects ASAP. So back again the next day to make an appointment for myself and my wife to have these injections. A day later we get a letter stating they do not have any free appointments and that we will need to find another surgery in the area and by the way it will cost you £45 per person. At this point my wife spoke to Kate Watney the practice manager and as usual she was of no help. My wife said she will complain to the local PCT and she said sarcastically she will be looking forward to it and also added the PCT will not listen to one person’s opinion. We like others on this site was also offered the option of moving to another practice. This happens each time we make a complaint!!

Any other patients out there from the Bromley Common Practice, please post your comments as Kate Watney the Practice Manager does not believe there is a problem.

[craigwalsh]

Hi, Surfraider --

Firstly, welcome to the new NHS Sucks forum. I started this a little while ago because I was so ticked off at the NHS I just had to vent my frustration. It made me feel good posting my grievances on a website --- even if nobody read them. Of course, it makes me feel even better if folks do read them, and do comment.

It's really heartbreaking to hear about your experiences, and to hear that when you complain the answer is to tell you that you'll be happier elsewhere. The only real difference between your GP's surgery and mine is that at the St. John's Surgery the practice manager, Jim Waits, is a pretty nice guy. In my limited experience with him I don't think he's hugely effectual, but at least he's kind.

If he were effectual, then it would be possible to make an appointment more than one month in advance (for example). The problem seems to be that he can't get the doctors' schedules from them to enter them into the appointments system. As a result, all of the patients suffer --- and the surgery switchboard is always clogged.

Are you going to move surgeries?

[surfraider]

Hi Craig,

We tried moving to another surgery today but we was told there are no doctors in the area taking new patients. So it looks like we are stuck with them for the time being.

We have since been to a travel clinic in London near Victoria Station where we had our injections, and the nurse could not understand why we had to see her for these. She gave us a discount which was very nice of her.

We had a letter today from Kate to say she had confirmed there were calls logged in their book from my wife asking for advice from the Nurse. So at least she is admiting there were Administration errors but still said they were unable to fit us in before we go on holiday. We are still going to complain to bromley PCT and I will keep you updated.

[craigwalsh]

An interesting dilemma.

If your GP wants you to leave (not because you've been a threat to their safety, but simply because they think you're a "difficult" patient) but there are no other GP's in the area to take you on, what do you do? I guess you remain stuck with your present GP.

If they don't want you, and you don't want to be there, that would seem to be a prescription for disaster.

But, at least in my opinion, this is fairly typical of the current system. The heck with the patient. The statistics, driven by the politicians, are the all-important Gods That Must Be Obeyed.

Have you asked your GP for a complete copy of your medical record under the provisions of the Data Protection Act? When I did this, I found that in 17 years they'd only produced 8 pages of notes, and two of those were the nurse's notes when we registered (family history and that sort of general information). It was, however, quite interesting to read the GP's comments.

If more of us request copies, then I think they'll be more careful about what they write down. And it might cause the GP's to think a little bit longer. (Okay, maybe not.)

[gp2]

You can ask Primary Care Trust to allocate you to another practice in the area. However you may not get to choose which practice.Theoretically "open but closed to new patients" is no longer allowed. If a particular practice became too popular they might have to start offloading existing patients to enable them to cope!

[Elen]

But, at least in my opinion, this is fairly typical of the current system. The heck with the patient. The statistics, driven by the politicians, are the all-important Gods That Must Be Obeyed

Practices have to follow government-introduced targets because that's how they get a lot of their income. I'm sure if you polled GPs they would say that the patients are paramount in their concerns as healthcare professionals.

Whether GPs worry or not about what they write down about patients, the paper records speak volumes without anyone having to read them: the tiny set of notes of an elderly woman, still in the original Lloyd George envelope, who only goes to the GP when she's really sick; to the boxes of notes some people have that are heartsinks even before the patient walks through the door. I suppose that's where we should all be thankful for computer records that don't have that tangible weight!

[craigwalsh]

Hi ---

Out of curiosity I just did a Google search for "Bromley Common Practice" in the UK. This forum posting came up as the first and second listing on Google. Of course, this is a movable feast, and it can change day by day. But today, this morning, if someone did a Google search for the "Bromley Common Practice," this is what would come up first (and second).

I am always aware of these fundamental facts: "In 1999, Technical Research Programs conducted a survey showing that for every one complaining customer, there are 26 customers who don’t bother to complain. This equals 27 unhappy customers for every one complaint that management receives. Furthermore, Technical Research Programs reported that the average unhappy customer will tell 16 people about a negative experience. Thus, when 27 unhappy customers tell 16 people about their negative experience, 432 people will hear negative comments about the business in question."

And then you add the power of the internet: blogs, forums, review websites etc. and this process is multiplied:

http://buzzbuilder.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/03/the_age_of_the_.html