Medical Surgery - good ones?

[msmoppet]

Does anyone have a medical centre they are happy with and can get an appointment in a reasonable time frame. 

I am with The Gardens and while the Drs are lovely getting to see them is nigh impossible unless you can ring at 9am exactly two weeks before the day you are able to see them. 

As a full time working parent this system is the worst. By the time i get through the in-person appts are gone and i need to go through the same process the next day, that is of course assuming I can juggle my work and parenting commitments to even get there when that day finally comes around two weeks later. 

In the mean time carry on for weeks on end not dying but certainly feeling shit and I bet when the time comes what I actually need is a referral.  Once i get that i bet it will be months and months wait to see a specialist.  Any better options out there?

[Froglander]

Have you had any telephone appointments?  It should be during that they decide it’s necessary to see you in person.   The Gardens Surgery is supposedly one of the best GP practice around.  There is also a service at Tessa Jowell Health Centre that will see patients in person who can’t get face to face appts at their own GP surgery.  The surgery has to refer you.  I found this info out from the TJ practice, where I am registered, and also from reading some of the other GP  websites in the area.   I’d contact the practice manager for help.   
 

 

[ctovey]

I know its a bit far for most on here (we stayed with them when we moved), but we are with Camberwell Green Surgery. In the past it has been pretty awful, but this morning I phoned at 8am to request a face to face appt. I was gobsmacked to be offered an appt later in the morning and given a choice of 2 doctors!

[malumbu]

They will all have their good points and bad.  There are plenty of threads on this forum.  'Good' is subjective, and infers that some are bad which denigrates hard working people in the NHS.  The ones we were banging tin  pots in support of four years ago.  Gardens generally seen as favourable on threads on this web site.

Edited June 21 by malumbu

[Sue]

The Gardens will always give you an appointment if it is clearly urgent. They keep a quota each day for same day appointments, but usually you would have a brief phone call first with a GP who will ask you to come to the surgery if necessary.

That's been my experience, anyway.

If it isn't urgent I don't think a two week wait is too bad, particularly given the state of the NHS generally at the moment.

 

Edited June 21 by Sue

[Castleton]

8 hours ago, Froglander said:

Have you had any telephone appointments?  It should be during that they decide it’s necessary to see you in person.   The Gardens Surgery is supposedly one of the best GP practice around.  There is also a service at Tessa Jowell Health Centre that will see patients in person who can’t get face to face appts at their own GP surgery.  The surgery has to refer you.  I found this info out from the TJ practice, where I am registered, and also from reading some of the other GP  websites in the area.   I’d contact the practice manager for help.   
 

It astounds me to hear TJ offer other surgeries patients appointments! I'm registered with TJ and simply cannot get anywhere with them!

 

[Monkey]

My humble advice would be to stick with The Gardens. I moved there from DMC on Crystal Palace Road, which was unsafe. Whilst I’d love to move house, I’m staying put so I can stay with The Gardens. They always, always, always give me a phone appointment on the day and see me if need be. They were fantastic when I called after my mum died of aortic dissection to assess if I could be affected too - all this within an hour of my call. 

[Froglander]

15 hours ago, Castleton said:

 

It’s not TJ that offer the appointments. It’s a service that is based in their building, on the first floor, that can be used by all the surgeries in the area. I cannot remember the name of it.

[Sue]

1 hour ago, Froglander said:

It’s not TJ that offer the appointments. It’s a service that is based in their building, on the first floor, that can be used by all the surgeries in the area. I cannot remember the name of it.

I used it once, but unfortunately I wasn't impressed with the GP I saw. Maybe I was unlucky.

 

[ArchieCarlos]

On 22/06/2024 at 13:12, Froglander said:

It’s not TJ that offer the appointments. It’s a service that is based in their building, on the first floor, that can be used by all the surgeries in the area. I cannot remember the name of it.

I believe you're referring to SELDOC aka South East London Doctors Cooperative, a GP co-operative to provide out of hours primary care to patients across SE London

[alice]

And not just out of hours extra daytime appointment too
 

[ianr]

That's EPCS.  https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/topic/340752-anyone-experiencing-even-greater-issues-securing-a-gp-appointment-with-tessa-jowell-gp-practice/page/4/#comment-1661171

 

Edited June 23 by ianr

[Froglander]

On 23/06/2024 at 16:54, ArchieCarlos said:

I believe you're referring to SELDOC aka South East London Doctors Cooperative, a GP co-operative to provide out of hours primary care to patients across SE London

No, it’s not SELDOC.  I think it’s only 111 that can refer you there.

[Sue]

2 hours ago, Froglander said:

No, it’s not SELDOC.  I think it’s only 111 that can refer you there.

Wherever it was I went, it was definitely on the first floor of TJ, I saw a GP, and I was referred by my own GP surgery there because I was desperate, and it was a bank holiday (I think it was Good Friday).

[Pugwash]

We have been at the Gardens for years and although sometimes had to wait a couple of weeks for a routine appointment, other times I have been called in to meet nurse/pharmacist/GP within a couple of days. Recently I was unwell and hubby called 111 who then spoke to our GP, who called me back within an hour and organised an ambulance, Very impressed.

Ended up in Kings for 2 weeks being operated on.

[Sue]

5 hours ago, Pugwash said:

We have been at the Gardens for years and although sometimes had to wait a couple of weeks for a routine appointment, other times I have been called in to meet nurse/pharmacist/GP within a couple of days. Recently I was unwell and hubby called 111 who then spoke to our GP, who called me back within an hour and organised an ambulance, Very impressed.

Ended up in Kings for 2 weeks being operated on.

Hope you are ok now, Pugwash.

[Sally Eva]

On 22/06/2024 at 14:27, Sue said:

I used it once, but unfortunately I wasn't impressed with the GP I saw. Maybe I was unlucky.

 

They may not be proper doctors but GP Associates (or something like that), who are not fully qualified.

[Sue]

47 minutes ago, Sally Eva said:

They may not be proper doctors but GP Associates (or something like that), who are not fully qualified.

I'm pretty sure it was a "proper" GP.

[Sally Eva]

Did you ask him/her directly? I asked the nurse doing my well woman check and she cheerfully acknowedged she was a nurse associate only capable to the level of an SRN. To become an SRN she would have to take more exams. She was very good though and I hope she goes on

[Sue]

1 hour ago, Sally Eva said:

Did you ask him/her directly? I asked the nurse doing my well woman check and she cheerfully acknowedged she was a nurse associate only capable to the level of an SRN. To become an SRN she would have to take more exams. She was very good though and I hope she goes on

I don't remember, but whoever she was she gave me two lots of unnecessary antibiotics and referred me back to the wrong hospital department 🙄

[Sally Eva]

i hope you complained. That's bad.

[Sue]

16 minutes ago, Sally Eva said:

i hope you complained. That's bad.

Too long a saga to post on here, and water long ago under the bridge. I didn't complain.

I didn't find out it was the wrong hospital department until long afterwards, so  I had unnecessary investigations.

I didn't want to take the antibiotics but I was desperate.

[Froglander]

On 01/07/2024 at 08:17, Sally Eva said:

They may not be proper doctors but GP Associates (or something like that), who are not fully qualified.

 

On 01/07/2024 at 14:20, Sue said:

I don't remember, but whoever she was she gave me two lots of unnecessary antibiotics and referred me back to the wrong hospital department 🙄

Did you mean PA - Physician Associates?  They have very limited training  (about two years) yet their job title has the word Physician attached to it. It’s very shady.

[Penguin68]

2 hours ago, Froglander said:

Did you mean PA - Physician Associates?  They have very limited training  (about two years) yet their job title has the word Physician attached to it. It’s very shady.

These people are properly trained (not to the level of a trained GP who will be a qualified doctor who then has done specialist GP training - so comparable to a Registrar in a Hospital) - but they additionally only are meant to act under the supervision of a GP. It's not shady if they are being effectively used (but would be where there was no, or even very limited, GP supervision).  Increasingly GPs themselves act as referral experts to hospital specialists. Medicine is hugely more complex than it was in 1948 - the practice model is no longer valid from the inception of the NHS (neither, in my view, is the funding model - which was first criticised by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer - Hugh Gaitskell as early as 1949!).

[Moovart]

Not comparable to a registrar in a hospital who will have done 5 or 6 years at medical school, a year of foundation training, two years of core training at least and then 1 to 6 years as a specialist registrar before ready to be a Consultant.  GP trainees will spend a year of foundation training after 5 or 6 years at medical school, possibly some years as a core trainee and sometimes Specialist Registrar and then a minimum of 3 years on a GP training scheme before becoming a GP and many will take a number of postgraduate exams including  the MRCGP (Membership of the Royal College of GPs)

Physician Associates are not equivalent to a hospital registrar or a GP registrar and should be working under supervision of a fully qualified GP or Consultant.  While a Physician Associate may be very good, they should not be being confused with a doctor and patients should know clearly if they are seeing a doctor or a Physician Associate.

The title can mislead.