Brunswick Medical Centre Reviews Summary

Appointment Management

Pros:

• "Warm welcome and prompt responses from whole team including reception and doctors."

Cons:

• "I have not had a single appointment that wasn’t cancelled, rescheduled or delayed."
• "Vaccination appointment for my son today 29.08.2023 at 17:30 got cancelled."
• "Was told I couldn't make a future appointment although a practice DR requested I make one."

Reception Accessibility

Pros:

• "Daniel from reception was exceptionally helpful in sending an email to Archway Medical for a GP transfer."

Cons:

• "Getting to reception is extremely difficult."
• "I called multiple times today with being number 1 in the cue for over an hour and no answer."

Reception Staff Attitude

Pros:

• "Brunswick Medical Centre are reliable and answer fast and handle requests fast on Dr IQ."

Cons:

• "The receptionists are rude and unhelpful."
• "The receptionists are rude and dismissive, have zero concern for the patients."

Booking and Consultation Process

Pros:

• "They give you enough time for appointments, great at listening, treat you with care and concern."

Cons:

• "It is nearly impossible to get an appointment here because the receptionists put you on hold for hours on the phone."

Technical and Application Issues

Pros:

Cons:

• "My application doesn’t work."
• "The app is also dire as each time I try and book an online consultation, the option is unavailable due to capacity exceeded."

Professionalism and Competence

Pros:

• "Dr. Barbara is great but only in twice a week."
• "Dr Tom Sorah is the best doctor ever, very passionate in what he does to help patients."

Cons:

• "Unresponsive, uncaring, and impractical."
• "Never in all my 61 years have I EVER been spoken to so rudely by a Doctor."

Policy and Procedure Transparency

Pros:

Cons:

• "Apparently it is this practices POLICY that they do not do blood tests but instead patients need to make a referral at hunter street."

Feedback and Complaints Handling

Pros:

Cons:

• "I officially complained over 3 months ago - no response."

General Practice Experience

Pros:

Cons:

• "Lack of duty of care!!!"

Communication and Accessibility

Pros:

• "The only thing they're decent at, is getting back to you fairly quickly if your children need medical attention."

Cons:

• "You're on hold for ages (once I was on hold for an hour and a half)."

Staff and Professionalism

Pros:

• "When I do get to speak to the doctors, they are usually very kind and do listen to what I am saying."
• "The new set of people that have taken over since April have shown me nothing but kindness care and professionalism."

Cons:

• "Staff at reception are often rude."
• "Staff don’t seem like they are trained properly, management doesn’t get back to patients efficiently."

Consistency of Care

Pros:

Cons:

• "The level of care is not consistent."
• "You see a different GP each time which means you have to explain your medical history each time."

Emergency Handling

Pros:

Cons:

• "I called during an emergency situation and was put on hold for 20 minutes."

Overall Satisfaction

Pros:

• "There have been a few occasions where my experience was satisfactory."

Cons:

• "Overall, very unsatisfactory experience every time."

Recommendations

Based on the recurring themes in the feedback, here are some recommendations for improvement:

• Review and improve the appointment scheduling system to reduce cancellations and delays.
• Improve reception accessibility, possibly by increasing staff or streamlining call management.
• Provide customer service training to reception staff to ensure they are polite and helpful.
• Ensure technical issues with the application are resolved promptly to aid in the booking process.
• Uphold a high standard of professionalism and competence among all staff, especially doctors.
• Make policies and procedures regarding referrals and tests more transparent.
• Establish an efficient feedback and complaints response system to handle concerns promptly.
• Strive for consistent quality of care by improving the continuity of care from the same GP where possible.
• Develop an effective and responsive emergency call handling procedure.
• Address the overall patient experience by looking into specific complaints and taking action to rectify them.