Farndon Health Centre

Ok place all staff nice

I am extremely disappointed in the way that the reception staff deal with their phone calls. I have found them to be very very rude. Ironic when there is a sign post highlighting the general public not be rude to staff members. Maybe management should relay this to their team.

Having moved to farndon surgery 6 months ago I have been very impressed by the standard of service. Both the medical treatment and efficiency of the reception staff are far superior to my previous experience.

13/01/22 I am 71 years old and experienced many doctors and doctors surgeries in my life. I appreciate that times have been difficult (I work in the health sector myself and had to move from seeing patients face to face, to woking on zoom but I have never not been available)but the care and understanding of Farndon GP practice seems to be non existent. If you call there is a long rambling message about how hard they are working and what will happen if they deem that you have been abusive.
I asked for an annual medical review and flagged up that my blood pressure is high. I dutifully filled in a week long blood pressure form and told to bring it back so I could have the review. When I took it in I was told it would be by telephone and receptionist said "nurses are very busy" I said "nurses" ? I was told that all medical reviews are by nurses. and there is no appointment until 28th my blood pressure this pm was 170/110. not sure how bad that is but clearly no one is actually going to look at it until the appointment
So am I to understand that there are no doctors? I never seen anyone but a doctor in 71 years. I have great admiration for nurses, but however good they might be, if they were as good as a doctor, they would be a doctor.
It feels to me that its gone to hell in a hand cart. Oh, and I wrote a letter of complaint nearly a year ago and they didn't even bother to acknowledge it. I chased but was told that due to covid they had 6months to reply
I am of course scared that this will be used to find a way to throw me out of the practice , but some things need to be said

I have found the midwifery service to be outstanding through this health centre, extremely attentative and punctual appointments. However since having my newborn son 8 weeks ago I have received a completely different quality of care from this practice.

Late appointments despite being the first appointment of the day, arriving at appointments to be sent away again, an extreme lack of communication, patronising staff and absolutely no empathy despite all their mistakes.

Bringing a small infant to a covid environment unnecessarily is not acceptable nor is the lack of patient care. Staff have shown incompetence, no empathy and no manners!

The staff have been kind and courteous, even through one of the most stressful times the NHS has had to face, and is still facing. So I would say a big thank you to the Farndon Surgery team, whose hard work I'm sure is mostly unseen and, sadly, unimagined by many.