Parkwood Drive Surgery

The best doctors surgery. The receptionists are polite, the surgery will do their best to get you seen to and your issue sorted on the same day and are very caring and attentive. Best doctors surgery I have ever had and would recommend them to anyone and everyone looking for a reliable, easy to contact surgery.

Only use this surgery if you are never ill.

Parkwood Surgery operate a 'three step barrier' from actually seeing patients face to face.

First you have their answerphone message which goes on for ages before you can finally select an option (if you are on a pay-as-you-go mobile, you will use up all your credit). When you finally get through to the right option, they simply won't answer the phone until at least half an hour.

Secondly, if you're lucky enough to speak to a receptionist, she will just say that the doctor has to phone you back in two weeks' time when whatever ailment you have has probably cleared up (or killed you - they don't care which).

Thirdly, if you actually get to speak to a doctor over the phone they'll just send you to A&E in Watford or Urgent Care in Hemel.

If you do dare to try and book an appointment, just go there in person. It's much quicker and at least you'll have the satisfaction of annoying the receptionists by entering their sacred fortress.

I called surgery due to I was very unwell, had bad cough and mucus from nose and throat was green what clearly means I had bacterial infection and I needed antybiotic. I got phonecall back from doctor? and when I told I had green mucus and for many years I did not use antybiotic but this time I needed one doctor by phone told me that was virus. How he could tell me by the phone what kind of infection that was ???? He ignored that mucus was green and I was very unwell and told me I would not get antybiotic and I have to take vitamins and after 2 days I will get better. I was taking vitamins before I spoke with doctor and because he was not willing to help me I told him I have to go abroad to get help from Doctor. Then he told me I can come for checking but I will not get antybiotic anyway and that means that is not matter how much I need antybiotic I will not get one and I must suffer. After 2 days I felt much worse and I could not sleep at night at all
because of heavy cough and a lot of mucus. I do not remember if I ever swear so much on someone but when I went to Poland I got antybiotic straight away and doctor told me that was very bad I was waiting so long to start antybiotic because bacterials might damage heart or develop in other diseases . When I told him that by phone doctor told me that was virus even I told him about green mucus and refused antybiotic Polish Doctor told me that ignorance was not accetable and it could change into something worse. Only after one day of using antybiotic I felt much better, mucus very quickly get normal color and I have much more energy. I am paing for NHS but when once per few years I need some help I have to pay for private visit in other country !!!!!!!!

I wouldn't bother with this practice. If you try to get a 'routine' appointment it takes nearly a month before you cen even get a call back from a doctor over the phone, let alone face to face.

If you are unlucky enough yo use them, make sure you go into the surgery to book up as the receptionists don't answer the phone and the average wait time is up to half an hour.

Since the refurbishment gone further downhill, in short too big to cope. Trying to make an appointment is a nightmare can be held on phone for ages. It appears to me this is another case of NHS trying to run as a business not a service to public for peoples health. On the plus side the vaccination service is good.

I just wanted to say Lucy (receptionist ) is a very thoughtful and caring individual. Called me to let me know by prescription was ready and calmed me down on the phone the day before. Really appreciated it and means a lot, when I was very down and sad.

The receptionist is just rude and not helpful. My usual nurse would usually come out of her room and call for my name, but this time I was told to stare at the screen for god knows how long as they usually delay and we have to wait for a while. I missed my call on the screen and the receptionist shouted at me saying "did you see your number on the screen", I said no, and she said "I asked you to look at it" in a rude manner. I then asked her "where should I go" and she proceeded to ignore me. I was loud enough and knows she could hear me. I just walked down the corridor and hope for luck that I will find the room I'm supposed to go to. If you hate your job so much go do something else. Nobody is forcing you to work there, let alone be grumpy to patients. Nobody's day needs to be ruined by your rudeness.

As other people have mentioned, the receptionists are the problem here (I think being arrogant and condescending is a pre-requisite to being a medical receptionist tbh). They have messed up a print of my prescription 4 times so far and when i eventually was told to come in to collect it, they said the Doctor hadn't signed it yet, I was told to take a seat to wait, I asked if they couldn't just explain that I was there to collect and have it signed right away given the problems and delay I'd already encountered and they just said "thats not how it works", so I took my seat, waited 15mins and eventually got what I needed.

When you ring them, it usually takes 15-30mins for them to answer. I drove down there once while listening to hold music and walked in to see if they were genuinely busy and there were 2-3 of them sitting there chatting!

I gave them 2 stars because when you finally get to see a Doctor, they seem to be fit for purpose.

I guess this is what you get when the NHS is under funded, people doing the bare minimum they need to.

Update: downgraded to 1 star now as the service has continued to get worse. I just got a text telling ME to call THEM to discuss my medication. Why can't they just call me when they are available rather than calling me and expecting me to wait 30mins+ for them to answer the call, this service is inhumane!