The reception staff are always professional and efficient and following a recent incident the action was prompt and resolved efficiently.
I am editing the following post because I have been able to meet the Practice Manager. I left the review below (at 1 star) after several problem appointments, but I accept that I was wrong to do so on the spur of the moment.I have trigeminal neuralgia which sometimes causes extreme pain when speaking. The surgery's current system of 2 x telephone calls, then possibly having to describe symptoms for a 3rd time to a doctor, is challenging for me, as it must be for others who have difficulty speaking. Whilst I stand by most of my comments, I have apologised to the Practice Manager for having left a very negative review, rather than thinking through other, very satisfactory, experiences with this surgery.I do often feel as if I meet a brick wall when trying to sort out health problems here, but there are other times when doctors, nurses, and reception staff have gone out of their way to help me, and my family.Having spoken to the Practice Manager, I understand better the pressure the surgery suffers. Whilst we all know there is a shortage of doctors in our country, it is a pity Planning Departments allow such an increase in housing locally, when this causes so much extra strain on surgeries and schools, etc. "As others have commented, this practice was excellent some time ago. Then came changes. We were able to make appointments to see a specific doctor, now it is extremely difficult to do so. We were able to make appointments to see a doctor online, now it appears impossible. We used to be able to call for an appointment, now we have to ring, leave a message for a doctor to call back to discuss our conditions/concerns, after which he/she will decide if we need to visit surgery. What a waste of time. The doctor who calls us will be a long-term staff member but here's the thing ... if this doctor decides we are poorly enough for an appointment, we often end up with a junior doctor or as described recently "almost a G.P." I have been misdiagnosed by 2 trainee doctors and ended up returning to the surgery to see an established member of staff or once ended up at Hereford hospital, wasting their time and mine.We object to discussing conditions/concerns with reception staff. We do not believe they are always able to make a speedy decision about the appropriate doctor, training or no training.I see the practice is still accepting new patients. One wonders why if they already find it tricky to keep an appointment system in place. It would be better all round if they made a U-turn or even established a 2 tier system: enable non-urgent patients to make appointments, poorly patients to speak to a doctor.To sum up, constantly making changes to appointment systems is annoying for patients. We have suspicions about the motives for the junior doctor thing ... it is almost as if we, the patients, are being sieved through the system, only ending up with an established qualified G.P. if we are persistent enough to by-pass a trainee. Is this a money-saving scheme? Seems like it could be.UPDATE: I have just wasted 9 minutes 13 seconds trying to get through to the surgery to speak to a doctor (not able to make an appointment remember). This just proves my point above: anyone who wishes to make a routine appointment, e.g., drugs assessment, ask for a referral for a non-urgent condition, etc., has no choice but to block up the surgery phone to ask for a doctor to ring them back. Queuing like this will only add to the discomfort of any really poorly patient who wishes to see a doctor the same day. Crazy system. Visited in February 2018. Posted on 19 February 2018"
Very helpful
Very good surgery, polite staff and I have always found the surgery to be efficiently run.Yes of course there are going to be times that appointments overrun making the doctors and nurses late but this is the fault of the general public, adding oh and one other thing not the surgery. Please do remember that this service is not a private practice and as such they are operating as well as they can under stringent budgets set by accountants and managers rather than healthcare professionals.
Terrible practice. Couldn't even be bothered to contact me regarding some tests I had done. Apparently its not their policy to contact me about my test results anymore. Just like it's their policy to keep me waiting for a call back for over 2 hours when my daughters in dire need of a doctor. Their pre screening policy is flawed. Although the receptionists are polite enough when dealing with complaints they are very quick to get on the defensive when I had genuine problems with their service.
Alton Street Surgery is a UK Hospital based in Ross-on-Wye, West Midlands. Alton Street Surgery is located at Alton St, Ross-on-Wye HR9 5AB, UK.
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