Covid Update

You may be aware that the cases of Covid are rising, and with this mind we must protect both our patients and our staff.  Therefore we will be asking all patients who present with a respiratory issue, such as a cough with a fever; to do a covid test before their appointment and to also wear a face mask upon entering the building.  We will of course review this periodically, and we thank you for your understanding.

PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP - RELAUNCH

We are currently remodelling our Patient Participation Group (PPG) and would like to hear from you if you would like to become a member.  This will most likely consist of 4 meetings per year (with the first one being held at the beginning of June) along with intermittent email requests for members thoughts on burning issues, and perhaps for your help with flu clinic co-ordination amongst other things. We are particularly keen to ensure the group represents a wide range of patients with differing health concerns, ages, and ethnicities; so if you would like to be considered for the group then please head to the 'Have Your Say' section of our website and complete the form. 

CHAPERONES

If you would like to have a chaperone present during your consultation, please speak to a member of the reception team when you arrive for your appointment and we will happily arrange this for you.

PHONE LINES

We are receiving a high volume of calls to the surgery every day and unfortunately this can result in long waiting times for your calls to be answered.  The demand for GP services has been well documented and unfortunately means that we are unable to ease the length of time patients are waiting in line at this time.  We are looking in to a new telephone system, however, this will not reduce demand and therefore may not have any impact on how long patients are waiting to get through.  It is well documented that these unprecedented levels of demand need addressing and, like our patients, we are also waiting to hear what measures will be taken.  In the meantime we thank you for your patience.

YOU SAID - WE DID:  We were made aware by our patients that our phone lines were struggling to deal with the demand they were put under each day, and at times this resulted in some patients losing their place in the queue after being on hold for a long time. We appreciated this was frustrating and after looking in to how we could improve this we now have a 'cloud telephony' system which will improve access to our phones lines, and also help us with a lot more other areas such as call recording, and call monitoring.  We hope you have found it easier to get in touch with us now, but please do not hesitate to contact us if you detect any further problems with our telephone system.  

APPOINTMENTS

As you may be aware, there has been a lot of publicity regarding the struggles patients have in obtaining an appointment; which has resulted in a some new initiatives being put in place by the Government, NHS and the ICB.  Unfortunately, General Practice has received very little help towards this and we simply cannot provide enough appointments to cope with demand which is at an all-time high. We can, however, assure our patients that we are continually working to try and find ways to help improve access, even though we have limited resources.  We understand that this causes frustration to a lot of patients, and this has resulted in a large volume of incidents of aggressive and abusive behaviour towards our staff; which we will not tolerate.  Our reception staff are doing an incredibly hard job, often on a very low wage, and we would ask all of our patients to remember that they are human, and have feelings, just like everyone else; and we would really appreciate it if you could show them some kindness and compassion. 

In light of this we have a statement below which we hope will provide our patients with some reassurance that our reception staff are here to help you; and with your help we may be able to ease the current situation:

“We continue to do our very best to provide as many appointments as possible for our patients. General practice teams across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire are delivering more appointments than ever with more appointments to see GPs, nurses, and specialist staff like physios and pharmacists.

We continue to work hard to provide safe and effective services for our patients and have put a number of extra roles in place to provide personalised care from specialist staff close to home. With more people providing patient care than ever before, we’re doing our best to help alleviate pressures and patient waiting times.”

Help us to help you

Please continue to come forward with any health concerns you might have. We are here and are working hard to provide safe effective care for you.

Explain to the receptionist team why you are calling, so that they can match you with the most appropriate clinician as soon as possible. They are specially trained to help you and provide confidential and sensitive support.

If you can’t keep your appointment, please let us know so we can offer it to someone else.

Enhanced Access:  From the beginning of October 2022 we will also have Enhanced Access appointments, which will be available outside of our normal opening hours.  These appointments will enable you to see a clinician, but the appointment will not necessarily be held here at West Oak.  The receptionist will advise you where the consultation will be held, please ensure that you make a note of it at the time of booking. 

FRIENDS AND FAMILY

If you have recently had an appointment with us please would you be kind enough to visit the 'Have your say' section on this site and complete the Friends and Family section?  Constructive feedback is important to us, to help us shape our service and understand what is important to you.  We also have paper questionnaires in the reception area and a box that you can put the completed questionnaire in so that your answers remain anonymous. In addition to this we may also send you a link via a system called Accuryx - so please do not be alarmed if you receive a message via this facility.

SHARPS BINS

We have had a number of patients bring their full sharps bins to us for disposal.  Unfortunately we do not provide this service and would ask patients to contact Gedling Borough Council to arrange disposal.  

EAR SYRINGING

We have taken the difficult decision to stop providing our ear syringing service from April 2023.  We are not contractually obligated to provide this service and at a time when demand for appointments is high, and other services are being brought in; we have been forced to make some difficult decisions regarding which services we need to stop doing in order to try and help the situation.  We will gradually phase this out throughout the year so that patients have plenty of time to source an alternative service; and will stop completely on March 31st 2023.  We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.