Dulwich Medical Centre... bunch of ####s

[evilmanic]

Was your mobile phone broken?

I'm pretty sure that for at least the last 30mins - 1hour of your journey that you would have been above ground, so a quick call to them would no doubt have seen a more lenient attitude.

Calling them names is a tad immature, you didn't get your way so you resort to name calling on the internet?

I can see why they have such a policy, if every patient was 9 minutes late, based on a 15min appointment, then the last appointment would be running 90minutes late - would you be happy if you were that last patient waiting, or would you be here name calling? - I'm guessing the latter.

Quoting from your 2nd post in this thread:

Treating people with contempt is not the answer.

[Fuschia]

Receptionists at DMC have actually been lovely to me this week when I was in a car accident (I'm pregnant) and woke up bleeding and the midwives were on answerphone. One went down to try to find a midwife, and got me an immediate call back from the duty doctor and then when I rang again the next day remembered me and asked me if eveyrthing was Ok after the emergency scan I needed. I have never really had a bad experience with the reception there, not in the last few years anyway.

[duchessofdulwich]

I dont think its fair to call the staff at DMC such degrading names. The member of staff in this matter has not been able to give their side of the story.

we have used DMC for our family; okay its not perfect at times but they have always tried their best.

[hpsaucey]

Well. I used to find DMC staff quite abrupt on reception.

My worst experience was when I had a home birth with my son. I had to get him seen by a doctor when he was only 6 hours old so I asked for a home visit. It took four phone calls to get them to agree to come out. They suggested that I put him in a taxi to take him round to the clinic as I wasn't able to walk!!!

HAVING said that I have to say I've found them really good and helpful recently.

I guess you're going to get good and bad experiences everywhere and to be fair, everyone has their off days!

[Fuschia]

hpsaucey Wrote:

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>

> HAVING said that I have to say I've found them

> really good and helpful recently.

Any problems we have had were quite a while ago. I wonder if there was a change of staff...

[hpsaucey]

Think that's probably true. Or, at least there seem to be more of them so maybe they're, on the whole, less stressed and busy?? Or, IF they've made a mistake and said a one minute cut-off for missing an appointment, then maybe new and not making a good judgment call?

[dogcat]

It was a Wednesday evening about 7.30. Knock at the door. Woman I didn't recognise, she explained that she was a GP at DMC and that there'd been a call from King's about my blood test and my blood sugar was very high. The surgery had not been able to get hold of me (my mobile was upstairs!) so she had decided to call round on her way home to make sure everything was OK and ask me to go in to the surgery the next morning. She was so concerned that at first she wanted to get me admitted to A&E. Every doctor I have dealt with there (I've been a patient for 5 years) has been an excellent and caing professional. OK, sometimes the reception staff are a tad off kilter but would you want to do a job like that day in day out.

Irritating at times, maybe, C***S I think not, save that appellation for the Parking Enforcement brigade!

Hope you get well soon...

[Penguin68]

In my experience (not at the DMC) medical receptionists (who are not often paid very much) frequently see their role as 'protecting' their doctors (or dentists) from the disruption of patients (so they can concentrate on the patient they are with). This can transmute into following rules set by the doctors (or the practice adminstrator on their behalf) very rigidly. They are neither paid nor trained to be flexible or interpretive of the rules. Of course, there are exceptions to this, who see a 'bigger picture' - although I doubt they are really rewarded or recognised for this, save by grateful patients.

A 'one minute late' rule seems crazy, and others have suggested the norm at DMC (as elsewhere) is 10 minutes. Once the surgery session is under way my experience is that patients are normally actually seen in a minimum of about 10 minutes after their scheduled time, and frequently longer, and it would certainly be galling to turn up and be turned away when the doctor would not even yet have been calling you. I am sure rigid application of that rule leads to that eventuality, and it means that your lateness has allowed someone after you to go in earlier than if you had turned up on time, (but still well after their scheduled time).

I suspect that appointments are booked based on getting such 'catch-up' time (no shows and lates) to allow the patients to be seen within the alloted time (but not at their own allotted time). It's the same technique as selling more seats than a plan has for each flight (over-booking) and hoping for no-shows.

This makes best use of doctor time (always a patient there stacking) but ignores customer needs. In a necessarily rationed system, constrained by available resource, this is probably an inevitablity, but, as the patient, it can, at times, stick in the craw. You mustn't be late, or you'll be punished; they can do what they like, timewise, and you just have to put up with it and be grateful to be being seen at all.

[Gimme]

What amazes me was that they didn't say "Oh don't worry about that, we are running an hour late as usual!"

Think my record for the earliest being seen after arriving for an appointment is about 20 minutes and the latest is 1 hour 10 minutes.

It seems that if they expect you to be flexible and put up with their appalling timekeeping then they should be a little flexible when someone is 2 minutes late.

[Fuschia]

Gimme Wrote:

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> What amazes me was that they didn't say "Oh don't

> worry about that, we are running an hour late as

> usual!"

> Think my record for the earliest being seen after

> arriving for an appointment is about 20 minutes

> and the latest is 1 hour 10 minutes.

>

> It seems that if they expect you to be flexible

> and put up with their appalling timekeeping then

> they should be a little flexible when someone is 2

> minutes late.

But he was there at about 10 to 7, for a 630 appt... my guess is that the dr had left or was seeing the last person. The clinic starts to run down towards the end. He wasn't two minutes late.. as people have said, DMC's policy is 10 mins late, and from my experience they are even flexible about that if you are polite. Though the automated checking in system is inflexible, the reception staff are not.

[Fuschia]

Penguin68 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> In my experience (not at the DMC) medical

> receptionists (who are not often paid very much)

> frequently see their role as 'protecting' their

> doctors (or dentists) from the disruption of

> patients (so they can concentrate on the patient

> they are with). This can transmute into following

> rules set by the doctors (or the practice

> adminstrator on their behalf) very rigidly. They

> are neither paid nor trained to be flexible or

> interpretive of the rules. Of course, there are

> exceptions to this, who see a 'bigger picture' -

> although I doubt they are really rewarded or

> recognised for this, save by grateful patients.

I think, luckily, the receptionists at DMC break this mould. I have always (in recent years) found them to be very caring and helpful.

[sack donger]

Apparently the one minute rule is in effect for evening appointments, that's what I was told by their lovely receptionist any way.

My original post stated "c***s". You've all assumed that the middle letters were meant to be 'unt'! Talk about jumping to conclusions! How do you know they weren't something less ofensive, such as 'ock' for example?

To all these holier than thou posters castigating me for my use of a deliberately obscured to protect the innocent naughty word, I'd like to see what your reaction would have been if faced with the same situation.

People form their opinions of organisations based on their own experiences, obviously a few of you have had good ones.

Based on my experience of DMC, my opinion is that they are indeed a bunch of c***s. I am perfectly entitled to hold this opinion and to also state it in a public forum. If the people at DMC read this they will know exactly who I am and that does not bother me at all. I will have no problem saying exactly the same when I track down their manager next week to have it out with him.

Fuscia, I was two minutes late! The appointment was at 6:50 not 6:30!

[Fuschia]

sack donger Wrote:

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>>

> Fuscia, I was two minutes late! The appointment

> was at 6:50 not 6:30!

Ah, I see you edited your original post (you did say 6.30)

[duchessofdulwich]

wouldnt it have been more productive to contact the manager first to get some explanations from them?

Obviously you are angry, but I dont think you are going to get the answers to your problems on the forum.

if you were still really angry about the unfair treatment vote with your feet and change doctors .

end of.

[Nero]

All in all, I am broadly supportive of the DMC. It's local, open decent hours, has good nurses, but it fails by having a poor phone-answering response and sufers from general lacksadaiscalness - lost forms, wrong information etc. It feels like it is just that bit too big to be a local doctor's surgery, and instead comes over as a bit of a factory. Also, each time I have been the number of no-shows was high, and I'd like them to clamp down on those people rather than anyone who is five minutes late. I get the feeling it is eyeing expansion whilst resting on its laurels - a bad combination.

[Earl Aelfheah]

I used to go to the Brunswick Park Surgery in Camberwell (before I moved to ED) and they were the laziest, rudest people I think I have every encountered. The receptionists would completely ignore the queue of people lined up in front of them, whilst they discussed the previous night's Eastenders episode with someone over their mobile (or similar). Eventually someone would politely ask whether they may like to consider ending the call, at which point they would say something along the lines of "are you being aggressive, because if so we will have you removed and banned from the surgery". I always felt that if you so much as said hello to a receptionist there you were at risk of being pepper sprayed.

[Cassius]

I agree with Evilmaniac. On the couple of times I have been running late for an appointment at DMC I have called them to let them know I was having problems and have been seen without further ado when I finally arrived. What is the point of your mobile if you don't use it under such circumstances? If on the other hand you are one of those rare people that don't have a mobile then obviously this option would not have been open to you.

[Smiler]

Maybe the one minute policy was just for your charming self sack donger.

[HonaloochieB]

sack donger Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Apparently the one minute rule is in effect for

> evening appointments, that's what I was told by

> their lovely receptionist any way.

>

> My original post stated "c***s". You've all

> assumed that the middle letters were meant to be

> 'unt'! Talk about jumping to conclusions! How do

> you know they weren't something less ofensive,

> such as 'ock' for example?

>

> To all these holier than thou posters castigating

> me for my use of a deliberately obscured to

> protect the innocent naughty word, I'd like to see

> what your reaction would have been if faced with

> the same situation.

I would have explained why I was late and tried to negotiate the possibility of seeing a doctor, if assured it wasn't a going to happen, then in the end would have accepted the situation, enquired after the complaints procedure and if unsatified would have obtained the names of both the manager and the head of the practice.

I'd have left there seething and would probably have had a soothing pint in the CPT, possibly even a G&T (large if you please).

Wouldn't have made a post like yours.

> People form their opinions of organisations based

> on their own experiences, obviously a few of you

> have had good ones.

>

> Based on my experience of DMC, my opinion is that

> they are indeed a bunch of c***s. I am perfectly

> entitled to hold this opinion and to also state it

> in a public forum.

Oh, the I'm 'perfectly entitled to hold this opinion...and state it in a public forum' whining argument.

I can almost hear your voice getting high-pitched.

So it would be alright for me to call you a c###?

Though of course I might want to modify my language and maybe just make you a c***.

Oh the heck with it, I'll go easy on you, you're merely a c???.

There.

If the people at DMC read this

> they will know exactly who I am and that does not

> bother me at all. I will have no problem saying

> exactly the same when I track down their manager

> next week to have it out with him.

Track down? Have it out? Only in your confrontational world.

Phone, pay a visit and make an appointment with him, and stop being such an intemperate c???.

That last was the most mild of curse, by the way.

> Fuscia, I was two minutes late! The appointment

> was at 6:50 not 6:30!

[bawdy-nan]

I've got mixed feelings about DMC. I've lost an appointment through calling in adavance to say I was going to be a few minutes late (actually thought this might be helpful to them) and was mightily annoyed. They always, always run late when I'm waiting and I thought that , given that, my arriving a little later (train mayhem from the elephant) might not have been such a disaster.... seemingly not

BUT ... I've been a user of theirs for the last 8 years and, on the whole, I've found they've improved tremedously in terms of adapting to patients' needs. I prefered the "turn up" model of seeing a doctor but, I've found them to be flexible and helpful in the case of "emergencies" and I LOVE that they now do evening and weekend appointments and I'm dead keen on the online appointment booking system they're trialling.

[MrsMc]

10 minute rule as far as I know too. Don't have a bad word to say about DMC, Dr Duggan is my personal fave - a great 'old school' doctor. Ok, he arrives late sometimes and can be a little abrupt, but he actually cares for his patients. Noticed someone else using his room this week - he hasn't retired has he?

Ps. Not a doctor

pps. Not related to Dr Duggan!!

[bc44]

MrsMc i believe most posts are referring to DMC Crystal Palace Road not Chadwick Road,Dr Duggan was at Chadwick also Dr Duggan retired end of May, also so many of other Drs dont stay with DMC at any of there surgeries, I wonder why?

[SteveT]

Gripes.....

Since I have been attending DMC they seem to have 'mislaid' my medical history which is rather concerning, and I am not sure what can be done about it.

It is frequently difficult to get through by phone and I find it more successful to traipse in and make an appointment.

One evening I waited for over an hour after appointment time to see the Doctor, only to be told he has not returned from a visit.

Another time I was waiting for a long time in the waiting room and I had somehow been overlooked, so the receptionist sent me in to see the emergency doctor whose English was so appalling we had problems trying to determine whether we were talking about my anus or penis,

or as he described them as 'front hole' or 'back hole' hardly an accurate scientific description from qualified doctor.

I never see the same doctor twice as it is seemingly run by locums, so it is difficult to build any rapport.

Pluses.....

It is the nearest place to my abode.

It looks modern and inviting.

I prefer DMC rather than having to deal with the often surly, resentful, and/or obnoxious, admin staff of the notorious Melbourne Grove practice.