The Vale Medical Centre

May as well just go to A&E; I had a stomach virus and called up at 8am to get an appointment with a doctor, who gave me some good advice over the phone and told me to call back immediately should I notice any red flag symptoms.

Later in the day I began to pass blood in the toilet, alarmed by this, I decided to call the practice to speak with the GP. I was told there was nothing that could be done and they didn't have any GPs available to speak and would have to call back in the morning.

I ended up going to A&E where the doctors there actually helped and gave me medication to help with the pain and checked on the blood.

I joined vale med centre because the reviews were good, but so far my experiences have been bad, when I've actually needed help.

So far my experience has been great! I was very well cared for when I had covid, receiving a blood oxygen monitor the day after I reported my result, and regular check ins with the doctor. Then I received a telephone appointment for another issue followed up with a blood test appointment and a physical appointment the following week. All in all, very thorough and friendly service

I am pleased to be able to give the Vale Medical Centre a good review. Like many of the people leaving reviews i have noticed a significant drop in client services and it can be very hard to get appointments etc.

However maybe it's improving and today i had a lovely experience, i went along prepared for the receptionist to be hassled and therefore abrupt (rude) but it wasn't.

I had an appointment with the nurse 'Pat' she was professional, calm, unhurried (though busy), empathetic, kind, caring, efficient and very knowledgeable. She also took the time to answer my questions totally unrelated to why i was there about the menopause and cervical smear results. Incredibly helpful, she went above and beyond and even sent me lots of links to stuff linked to the area i was asking about.

She is the type of person who makes a practice, i know everyone is busy and stressed, staff as well as patients but she is just doing her job under presumably stressful conditions and making it look chill and therefore making a not very comfortable experience very pleasant. More people like her everywhere, would just make everything nicer, doesn't take time to smile.

I feel so bad giving the surgery a low score, I’ve been a patient here for 7 years and they’ve been amazing for the vast majority of that time. The doctors and nurses have all been fantastic.

Unfortunately getting an appointment seems to be impossible. I ring in the mornings at 8 and am fifty or something in a queue, by the time I get spoken to there are no more appointments available. I go on the app every night at 9pm and still nothing available. I’ve been trying for 3 weeks this way, I’m afraid I’m going to have to look for another surgery if things don’t change.

Im aware this could be correlation and not cause but things really haven’t been the same since Stuart left.

This is getting impossible to book any sort of appointment at this practice. I started at number 48 and when my turn came I was told that there were no appointment left for the day and to check at 9pm for appointment available online. I was online last night and there were no appointment available. I need to be referred to a specialist and the only way to do that is to speak to a GP. Looking to register to another practice if anyone can recommend one...

I strongly disagree with their appointment booking policy. People have jobs and lives, you can't expect them to hold on the phone for 40+ mins just to eventually be told there's no appointment left for them. And the patient is supposed to do this every day until they get lucky? Booking an appointment shouldn't be like a lottery game where only few win. What's the point to even register with the GP if you cannot see them and have to look for alternative help elsewhere.
The only positive thing is that they were fast to see my baby when I had worries about possible infection. Maybe I should have mentioned the appointment is for him to actually get one. For myself I have little hope of being seen anytime soon.

I joined this practice over a year ago and all the staff have been nothing but professional and helpful. The bedside manor is better than I've come across at various other practices and in particular they have a lot of female nurses and doctors which as a women I think makes a massive difference. Yes it is not always easy to get an appointment but this is an issue across all practices and you do have the option to book the night before via patient access as well as call in the morning which is more than a lot of practices. Once you've been seen though the follow up communication is great.

Really poor service. Signed up in September and contacted them in January to check a simple vaccination query. I was fobbed off and told to contact my old GP for records as they had not been requested yet. After getting the records myself and sending them over, I got dismissed several times and told that they couldn’t ask a GP. It was a simple vaccine query. It worries me that four months after joining this clinic, they still don’t have my medical notes despite having prescribed a repeat prescription for medication and doses that I advised them that I am on! It’s worrying that I could have made up any medication and doses and they would have prescribed it without any clinical records.
I asked them to request my notes again twice in the last two weeks and my old Gp informed me that they still haven’t done this. Two weeks of back and forth emails and I have no answer.
I have not even seen a GP but feel there is no care or effort to help from the staff I have dealt with in this matter. The whole experience was was below what I would expect from a competent clinic