Hedge End Medical Centre
24 Lower Northam Road, Hedge End, Southampton, Hampshire, SO30 4FQContact details and opening times
Patient ratings and reviews
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Reviews
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Review titled Thank you
Rated 4 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 25 August 2024
Following an E-Consult about side effects of a medication and waiting on results of a blood sugar test my husband received a next day phone call from his GP. This prompt response was greatly appreciated. My husband able to get answers from the GP to all questions and concerns and a prescription sent to chemist and available for next day collection. Further support from the nursing team enabled by the GP. The surgery contacted again the next day to offer a nurse appointment due to a cancellation. Thank you everyone involved in this response - perfect! On a general note, there is an inconsistency in the way reception staff handle patient calls. Unusual for staff to answer the phone and say who you are speaking to but if you call back to follow up a conversation one is always asked ‘who did you speak to?’ Generally, as a patient, unable to say who it was! Surely a note is put on a patient file at the time of the phone call and so should not be necessary for the patient to need to identify which receptionist they spoke to or for the receptionist to respond with ‘ I don’t know anything about it’? ‘Ring back’ option when contacting reception is a brilliant service.
Visited August 2024
Review titled Hedge End Medical Centre
Replied on 18 October 2024
Thank you for taking the time to comment, and it's great to hear you received a good service. We will feed back your comments about how the team answer calls - we don't ask staff to introduce themselves currently, and the Reception team generally don't make a note on the patient record, but we do record calls so we can listen back to them if needed. We do get good feedback about the ring back service, thanks for confirming!
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Review titled Not there when you need them
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 27 July 2024
After the system losing a prescription I called in to get an.ergency prescription. No problem it will be issued tonight and you can pick up on Saturday. So Saturday no prescription and I am out of medication Time for 111 emergency prescription No wonder the system is breaking when you can't even get the simplest of routine items right Yours Mr crabbie
Visited July 2024
Review titled Hedge End Medical Centre
Replied on 18 October 2024
Dear Mr Crabbie, I am sorry to hear you encountered a problem. We would be happy to investigate what happened if you would like to contact our Patient Experience Manager with your details, the feedback email address is on our website. Thank you.
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Review titled Lack of professionalism
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Rod Bailey - Posted on 26 July 2024
We all know how difficult it is to be able to get an appointment with a GP so you can imagine how angry I was when, I finally got through by phone, booked my appointment, got a text confirming the details, only to arrive on the correct date and time to find hemc had not actually booked me in! I felt so cross. The receptionist clearly didn't believe me at first and it was only when I showed them my text message that I was taken seriously. Doctors appointments are so difficult to get - we all know this. So to navigate through, get an appointment, build yourself up and prepare mentally for your visit only to be told it doesn't exist was so awful. This was my first contact with hemc in 6 years. I am fortunate to be fairly healthy. I feel truly sorry for those who have to go through this experience on a regular basis. 12 hours after this mess up, I still feel so let down by hemc.
Visited July 2024
Review titled Hedge End Medical Centre
Replied on 18 October 2024
Dear Rod, Thank you for your feedback, we have spoken offline to help address your comments, and am glad we have managed to acknowledge your complaint and address your concerns. As mentioned in our contact, we do have a feedback email address on our website should you need to raise a concern in future - we will always do what we can to fix any problems that have happened.
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Review titled Poor Deal for Diabetic patients
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 20 July 2024
I feel the recent service for someone with type 2 diabetes to be poor and below stanard. The reception team in the main do a good job and just follow orders but the number of calls I have made to get blood tests and an annual check up makes me feel like no one cares. I am still trying to get an appointment and every 3 months I feel it’s a real hassle to get seen to get bloods etc booked in
Visited June 2024
Review titled Hedge End Medical Centre
Replied on 22 July 2024
I'm very sorry to hear you have struggled to get booked in for your annual diabetes review. I can explain generically what the system should be: Patients are due their check around the month of their birth. They will be invited to book in with our Healthcare Assistant who will take bloods, measure height, weight and blood pressure, and check foot sensation. When the results of the blood test are back, a phone call (or a face to face appointment) will be booked with the Practice Nurse to discuss. We have recently been a little short staffed due to unplanned leave. We are now fully staffed, so should be able to provide an appointment in a timely manner. If you'd like to contact our Patient Experience Manager on hiowicb-hsi.hemcfeedback@nhs.net with your details, we can look into what has gone wrong and support you in obtaining an appointment.
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Review titled Often Impossible to make an appointment after E consult!
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Alan Booth - Posted on 01 May 2024
Despicable almost non existent service!! My wife has tried two successive weeks to book on a Weds @ 11 as advised, however the surgery operate an automatic cut off after telling you to listen for automatic call back message which isn’t ever provided!! You then get cut off and have to redial and join the call Que again! The surgery is totally inefficient and needs a quality assurance investigation by a governing body urgently ! There simply isn’t any justifiable explanation that could be provided, they are simply failing to provide their service contract with the National Health Service! Once you finally get through and then again get told to listen to the automatic call back message, which isn’t ever played, it again cuts you off in a couple of seconds, this isn’t caring it’s just down right rude! Accept your service isn’t adequate for its need and ask for help!! Unfortunately the GP’s have been forced into a glorified call centre where they have succeeded in keeping the surgery empty all day, just to answer the phone and Triage patients! Please realise Econsult will soon be triaged by artificial intelligence computers making the call centre doctor function redundant, as you now longer see any value to personally reading the patient alongside their personal consultation!! Hopefully somebody cares enough to evaluate Hedge End Medical Centre’s service to the community and the efficiency against their cost to the National Health Service! Again accept your failing to provide and get Help urgently.. Hopefully you don’t have to use the same telephone service as we all do!! Regards Alan Booth
Visited April 2024
Review titled Hedge End Medical Centre
Replied on 22 July 2024
I'm so sorry to hear of the problems you've had with our phone lines. We do occasionally get told of problems, but not to the extent you are describing. It would be really helpful if you could let us know times and dates and the phone number you are calling from should this happen again, as then we can escalate it with our telephone system provider. You can email us this information, put it in writing and post it through our door, or let us know at the reception desk. I can assure you we do care and we do our best to help our patients by seeing them as their need presents. If you wish to make a complaint about something specifically, you can contact our Patient Experience Manager on hiowicb-hsi.hemcfeedback@nhs.net.
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Review titled Great Service
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Lucy C - Posted on 19 April 2024
I just wanted to leave a positive review about the practice as it's well deserved! I've only ever had to contact them a few times but the reception staff have been nothing but helpful and polite. I've been in touch this week via an e- consult, and they've been nothing but proactive, thorough and supportive. I know I can't name the GP I saw on this review but they were so kind and extremely helpful. I left feeling reassured and I was so impressed with the whole experience. Thank you again to all the staff at Hedge End!
Visited April 2024
Review titled Hedge End Medical Centre
Replied on 12 June 2024
Dear Lucy, Thank you so much for taking the time to leave your wonderful feedback, we really appreciate it. The staff really do work so hard and are such a brilliant team. We will share your comments with all of them! If you would like me to pass on a review directly to the GP you are welcome to e-mail me at -hiowicbhsi.hemcfeedback@nhs.net Many thanks, Helen. Patient Experience Manager.
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Review titled What a sad start to an otherwise exciting journey
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 01 March 2024
I am pregnant for the first time, and whilst we planned for it, I'm very anxious. My pregnancy app told me today that it's time to inform my GP. I called, and it being my first time I didn't know what to say. I said "I tried filling out an e-consult but it didn't seem appropriate, it's my first time so a little unsure of what to do, so I'm calling to report that I'm pregnant" The woman was so rude - literally 0 empathy or compassion - she just rudely said "Right. So what report do you need?". I advised I didn't need a report, I'm just following the guidance I've found online. She said "Well you need to self refer" with an attitude that made me feel like I should have somehow known this already. I was thinking, "oh god, I've done this all wrong" until she said "I need to send you a link". "Oh", I thought. So I did need to call. What on earth was the attitude about then? In my exceptionally hormonal state I then got off the phone and cried - resulting in me missing a meeting at work. Considering you have notices to patients about "treating our staff with kindness" I would implore you to advise your staff to take the same ethos. I am very very much hoping that the next 9 months will be managed away from hedge end medical centre as I will actively avoid from now on (although maybe that was the aim to start with). Usually the staff are lovely - but this lady has let the whole team down. I'm really cross about this mornings call. It was so unnecessary. If you don't like people and have no compassion, don't pick a customer/patient facing role. It really is as simple as that.
Visited March 2024
Review titled Hedge End Medical Centre
Replied on 01 March 2024
Dear patient, I am devastated to read of your experience, and it certainly isn't the way our team have been trained, so we would very much like to find out some more information. We record all our calls, so we can find out which member of the team needs additional training. Please could you email your information to hiowicb.hsi-hemcfeedback@nhs.net, and we will investigate. I really hope that this doesn't put you off seeking help from us during your pregnancy, and I again apologise for the way you were spoken to.
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Review titled Not good enough
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 21 March 2024
I called the surgery on 18.3.24 following an issue with a referral letter I had received in the post. After I had explained a great length to the receptionist what I was calling for, she told me she would ask someone to call me back, here we are three day later and nothing. Called the surgery today and there is nothing noted that I had called - no one knew anything or was aware that I had called - absolutely terrible service - its a good job that its nothing life threating that I was calling about
Visited March 2024
Review titled Hedge End Medical Centre
Replied on 22 March 2024
I am so sorry that there was no record of your call. We would be keen to investigate what has gone wrong here, and would appreciate if you could contact our Patient Experience Manager on hiowicb-hsi.hemcfeedback@nhs.net. Thank you.
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Review titled Appointment Booking is Fundamentally Broken
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 28 November 2023
The appointment booking process at this surgery is fundamentally broken. I appreciate that demand has increased for surgeries but even if demand was low, it would still be way too hard to book an appointment. E-Consult requests can only be submitted in surgery hours (when I'm working). To get an appointment to discuss my asthma I had to submit three E-Consult (they lost the first one, the person on the phone put the wrong info on the second) and then you can't get through on the phone to discuss an appointment time (I tried ten times in one day for the automated message to say they were too busy and cut me off...all whilst at work myself). A review of your processes from a patient perspective is sorely needed to make it much easier. People don't mind waiting for a routine appointment, it's the endless failed attempts to do the simplest things that gets everyone so frustrated.
Visited November 2023
Review titled Hedge End Medical Centre
Replied on 01 March 2024
I'm sorry that you have had such a poor experience with our appointment system and eConsult. We are very happy to look into the circumstances around this if you'd like to email the details to us on hiowicb-hsi.hemcfeedback@nhs.net. We do continually review our processes, and you may have seen that we, along with Blackthorn Health Centre, are setting up an Urgent Care Centre in May which should alleviate some of the pressures on the routine side of appointments. We have also recently amended some of the options on our phone system to make it clearer which option to choose, and separates out urgent from routine.
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Review titled A great practice
Rated 5 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 14 September 2023
I recently moved to this practice from another in Hedge End and I would like to say how nice hemc is compared to my previous practice. The staff are friendly and helpful and it’s been so easy and stress free to book appointments and to use the e consult. So glad I moved to this practice. Thank you!
Visited September 2023
Review titled Hedge End Medical Centre
Replied on 28 November 2023
Thank you so much for your feedback. Our staff work so hard and are such a brilliant team, and it's so good to hear that this has also been your experience. We will share your comments with the team!