Alex Pinnock

Review of Better Care Medical Centre

I ran out of my heartburn tablets and after a very...

I ran out of my heartburn tablets and after a very painful Saturday night decided to 'walk-in' to Better Care Medical Centre at Fairy Meadow.

Upon arrival at 9:15am, there was clearly a problem with the standard 'Best Practice' medical software that most GP's use. There was only one receptionist on duty, Abbey, who was trying to reset the internet connection, take instructions from the IT help desk, answer the phone and greet patients all at the same time.

I was given a number (excellent backup system) and sat in the waiting room whilst the GP saw other patients. What happened next was truly shocking - a patient walked in and demanded to be seen before somebody else in line. This lady was not merely complaining, she was verbally abusive towards Abbey calling her incompetent and berating her loudly in front of the waiting patients.

After 5 minutes of listening to this lady blame everything wrong in her life on this poor medical receptionist, I had to intervene and ended up telling Abbey that she had handled the technical difficulties with absolute professionalism and that I would be writing to the practice manager to compliment her.

Abbey was clearly shaken and visibly upset however continued to clean the office and fix the computer issues whilst attending to other patients. I was then called into the GPs office and had my consultation - my script was given without issue and best of all it was all bulk-billed.

I love living in a country where I can see a GP at 30 minutes notice on a Sunday free of charge. For somebody to complain and gripe about 'administration issues' to the point of bringing a professional to tears - well it just goes to show the ignorance of some people.

I couldn't recommend this practice enough.