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Care Opinion

Access to GP surgery

Posted By Grandchild

"Access to GP surgery"

About: Aberdeen Health and Care Village / GMED General Practices in Grampian NHS 24 / NHS 24 (111 service)

(as a service user),

After a sore throat for 48 hours, I contacted a local pharmacy, who from a distance looked in my throat and advised there was nothing to see. Still in pain I contacted my GP surgery, to be told if it had only been 2 days the GP would not see me, but to maybe try a different pharmacy, which I did. I felt they sneered at the fact the GP surgery suggested I go to them, again a very quick look to be told it was fine.

Another 2 hours passed and in a lot of pain and it being Friday evening, knowing I could not contact my GP again until Monday morning, I contacted NHS24. After a long wait on the telephone, I was treated with dignity and understanding and was seen that evening.

As I had suspected, I was diagnosed with bacterial tonsillitis. I was so thankful to be given understanding and a smiling professional, who understood the pain I was in and provided a simple box of antibiotics.

I am upset that I had to go to a service that is there for emergencies and are obviously busy. I am not saying the GP surgery is not busy, I understand they are, but was pretty sure I had something that needed antibiotics, having suffered the same many times before. I worry had I totally trusted the professional services I had contacted, I may have become very sick.

 

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Responses

Response from Osi Elegon, Operations Manager, Out of Hours Primary Care (GMED), NHS Grampian last month
Osi Elegon
Operations Manager, Out of Hours Primary Care (GMED),
NHS Grampian

Submitted on 14/03/2024 at 16:26
Published on Care Opinion at 16:26

Dear Grandchild,

I am sorry to hear that you were unwell with bacterial tonsillitis, but happy to read that you are now on the road to recovery.

Your call was triage by NHS24 to Out of Hours Primary Care Service (GMED) and you were seen by one of my clinical colleagues. I am so please to read that your case was shown the expected understanding, with a satisfactory level of professionalism and you received the right patient centred care, by the right profession and at the right place. We continue to improve our service, so your feedback is proof that we are heading in the right direction.

I would truly love the opportunity to share your post with the clinician who cared for you. But in order to identify the clinician, I would like more information. Would you be willing to contact me separately at gram.gmedadmin@nhs.scot.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to post your comments on care opinion, your feedback is greatly received.

Regards,

Osi

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Response from Laura Neil, Interim Head of Clinical Governance & Quality Improvement/ Lead AHP, NHS 24 last month
Laura Neil
Interim Head of Clinical Governance & Quality Improvement/ Lead AHP,
NHS 24

Submitted on 15/03/2024 at 11:34
Published on Care Opinion at 11:35

Thank you for sharing your experience on Care Opinion. I am sorry to learn of your recent bacterial tonsillitis and hope you are now recovering well.

I am sorry that you felt that you had a long wait to access our 111 service. We are aware that at times, due to demand, wait times to access our service are longer than we would like. Please be assured we are working hard to improve this by ensuring our systems and processes are as efficient as possible.

However, I am pleased to hear that when you did get through that you felt you were treated with dignity and understanding and that an appropriate referral was made to your local health board for you receive the treatment that you required.

If you wish to share some more information with me, then I could identify the staff who managed your call to NHS 24 and share your Care Opinion story with them. We always like to ensure that staff see positive feedback to reinforce for them how valued their care is when people call our services. You can contact us by email at Patient.Experience@nhs24.scot.nhs.uk

Thank you again for sharing your experience.

Kind regards, Laura

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Update posted by Grandchild (a service user)

Thank you for the responses. I am disappointed that I have maybe mislead the reason for the initial correspondence.

My concern was for the fact that I was unable to access a GP, I note that no response has come back from the GP services.

I had no issue at all with the out of hours service I received or the telephone triage system. My concern being that had I been able to access the service of a GP I would not have had to bother an already stretch out of hours service. I was pretty sure of what I was suffering from, have had this many times previously.

Response from Kirsten Dickson, Quality Improvement and Assurance Facilitator, Quality Improvement and Assurance Team, NHS Grampian 2 weeks ago
Kirsten Dickson
Quality Improvement and Assurance Facilitator, Quality Improvement and Assurance Team,
NHS Grampian

Submitted on 10/04/2024 at 15:13
Published on Care Opinion at 15:13

picture of Kirsten Dickson

Hi Grandchild,

Thank for sharing your feedback and for clarifying the points raised in your initial story. I should have replied to explain the situation around feedback shared for the GP Practices when your first posted, I'm sorry I missed doing so.

Most of the GP Practices in Grampian are independently run and handle their own complaints and feedback. They don't have responding access to Care Opinion which means they can't respond directly and don't routinely access the feedback shared.

Raising your concerns with the practice directly is the best way to make sure they are aware of your experience and the impact it had. I know this would mean breaking your anonymity, which you might not feel comfortable with. If you would prefer, I can forward your feedback to the practice, but you will need to let me know the name of the practice you visited, either by email or telephone / text. I don't share any of your details with the practice, which keeps your feedback anonymous, but it also means your aren't guaranteed to receive a response. Though I will confirm it has been shared with them.

Help is also available to share your concerns with the GP Practice from the Patient Advice and Support Service (PASS). PASS are an independent service offering free and confidential advice and they can be contacted on 0800 917 2127, or for more information please go to www.patientadvicescotland.org.uk

My contact details are: Email: kirsten.dickson@nhs.scot or telephone/text: 07885720267

Hope to hear from you soon.

Kirsten

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