Peterborough councillor criticises GP surgery for 'dramatic fall' in quality of service

Stanground South ward councillor Chris Harper has criticised the Stanground Surgery for a ‘dramatic’ fall in the quality of service offered to patients.

The surgery, which is located on Peterborough Road and run by Lakeside Healthcare, is currently rated as Good by the Care Quality Commission following its most recent inspection in 2016.

Cllr Harper, however, has criticised the surgery and in particular its switch to online appointment booking.

Cllr Harper said: “It will be of no surprise to many residents across our ward and further afield, that over the past few years the service being offered to registered patients at Stanground surgery has fallen dramatically to levels never experienced before and now with what I hear is a recent insistence on the use of an app to even attempt to get an appointment.

"Knowing that many patients don't have the ability to use the online service has in my view, strayed into the area of breaching of the disability discrimination act and displays clear ageism.

"During my recent campaign this issue was raised many times on the doorstep and although the health facilities offered are not council controlled, it is clearly of sufficient concern to warrant me getting involved again with this practice and the Integrated Care Board, the Integrated Care System and the local MP Shailesh Vara, to lobby for big improvements for everyone.

"I appreciate there is a national shortage of doctors but that's not the patients fault and listening to the stories of residents, it feels to me like there is more to this and our MP and the authorities need to be advised and get involved to force improvement.”

in response, the surgery defended its booking system and has said that it is keen to engage with Cllr Harper over his concerns.

Dr Dan Dhanushan, GP Partner at New Queen Street and Stanground Surgeries, said: "In common with GP practices nationally we face huge demand and continue to adapt our staffing and working practices to respond as effectively as we can.

‘The views of our patients are very important to us and so we recently conducted a survey and we are analysing the data and will let patients know the key themes and actions we are taking as a result.

“We have recruited two additional GP Partners and a new management team in recent months and in April 2024 we delivered nearly 10,500 total appointments, which equates to 543 per thousand patients. (This is significantly higher than the national average of 444). More than 6,000 appointments, or 57.5%, were delivered face to face.

“We introduced Anima, our online consultation platform in January and 72% of respondents say they find it good or very good. Our oldest user is 92, with 633 patients aged 56 or older having used it.

“Those who do not have internet access can phone instead and our reception team can assist them. In April our team handled 5,612 telephone calls with an average wait time of 7 minutes and 32 seconds. We hope this demonstrates that we continue to work very hard for our community.

“We have reached out to Cllr Harper, as soon as we were made aware of his concerns, and we also liaise regularly with other stakeholders and the Patient Participation Group to address their concerns.”

A spokesperson for NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough added: “Online appointment booking services play an important role in modern general practice, with trained health navigators assessing online requests to make sure that patients are seen at the right time, by the member of the GP team best placed to support them.

“We recognise that online services aren’t easy to use for everyone, so we are working with practices across the area to ensure that a range of booking methods remains available to local people.”