The Clayton Medical Centre

I am sorry that you feel that the staff are unhelpful.
We understand that patients do not like to give information to receptionists but I can assure our patients that the staff have received formal care navigation training to direct patients to the most appropriate health professional and we have a variety of staff available including First Contact Physiotherapists (for advice with joint and muscular problems), Health and Well Being coaches, Clinical Pharmacists who can provide medication reviews discuss side effects etc. Receptionists also have protocols provided by our GP's to follow for particular conditions. They are also instructed to gather basic information by our GP's.
Most practices will say that they have some issues with appointment capacity and are not able to provide on the day appointments to every caller. This is why the GP's need patients to share a small amount of information with reception staff so that they as GP's can prioritise their appointments based on clinical details given.
We appreciate that patients have concerns regarding confidentiality when speaking with receptionists and I can assure patients that all staff have to sign a confidentiality agreement and it would be a matter of misconduct if they shared patient details outside of the healthcare team.
As it is a patients right you can choose to state that the appointment is for personal reasons the reception team can then only offer a routine appointment which can be up to 2 weeks in the future so that they can allocate on the day appointments are for patients who appear to be acutely unwell from the information given.
In relation to knowing who is calling before the receptionist answers the telephone, our system is part of our clinical system and therefore it gives a list of patient records containing that phone number to speed up the process, but staff still need to check who is calling. All calls are recorded and in cases of complaint we do review the recordings for training and security purposes.
I would agree that we have been receiving a lot of negative feedback on various media channels, however, we also receive a high number of thank you cards and positive feedback which is not publicised. It is commonly know that if someone has a negative experience they will tell more people than they would if they have a positive experience.
In relation to management availability we have Reception and Administration supervisors who are there to initially handle concerns about their departments over the telephone or at our reception desk. We do not make ourselves unavailable when a simple conversation could resolve the matter in a short amount of time.
If they cannot resolve the problem or feel that the concern needs to be escalated then we ask that formal complaints process is followed and a letter or email is sent for a full investigation and response.
It is generally perceived that if a supervisor or manager is called for we will be able to find an appointment where the receptionist could not. This is not the case.
We do appreciate that patients get frustrated particularly when feeling unwell, but shouting and swearing at staff does not make more appointments appear in the system. Staff will naturally become defensive as they cannot do anything more to help when all of the appointments are gone and they have offered alternatives. We don't tolerate shouting and swearing from patients we would not tolerate this behaviour from a member of staff to a patient.
We are trying our best to improve access with the additional health care roles which are now available and would ask patients to give them a try where appropriate including now Pharmacy First. We are investigating a new way of working to relieve the 8am rush and will be sharing details with patients as soon as we can.
In the 12 months (Feb 22 to Feb 23) we offered 33000 appointments of which 1000 (3%) were not attended and 4900 patients had multiple appointments.
In comparison over this last 12 months from (Feb 2023 to Feb 2024) we have offered 35000 appointments (over 6% more than the previous year) of which 1500 (4.28%) of which were not attended. 4600 patients had multiple appointments, despite a high rate of clinical staff absence.

I am sorry that you have not had a good experience.
Our online appointment availability is limited.
The front door is no longer locked we have had a device fitted so that we can turn off the maglock when staff are on duty, the door pulls open. We have had a locked inner door for security purposes for a significant length of time and this remain in place for security and safety of staff and patient on the premises.
In relation to staffing and referrals if you would be willing to contact me I would be more than happy to have a conversation regarding these matters.