Forum Topic

The National Patient Choice Survey

I have just been asked to complete a ‘National Patient Choice survey’ and understand that a copy is being issued to anyone in this area visiting their GP who is referred to a hospital.The anodyne questions are so designed as to provide a satisfactory result and nowhere is there a box allowing me to enter that my GP has installed a screen where patients are required to choose whether their consultation takes place in English or some foreign language and that whichever language option you choose the Doctor’s first language is the one other than English.Nor that the waiting room at my surgery (which is a converted house) is grubby and fitted with a tatty carpet and that the far from clean soft furnished seats are themselves extremely unhygienic.Or that the stains on the carpet go back years and that a medical practice should have cleanable plastic furniture and wipe down surfaces with floors which are able to be cleaned with a disinfectant.But wait for the outcome of the survey (no doubt to released just prior to the election) which will claim that a high proportion of patients are satisfied or more than satisfied with their general practitioner.

Harley Buckner ● 5892d3 Comments

I've had serious difficulty discussing my Phone bill with someone in a call centre in India, so I'd much rather talk through my health issues with someone who's first language is the same as mine.Yeah yeah... I know...  that makes me a fascist racist etc.

Harley Buckner ● 5892d

It is very frustrating when you are trying to explain your symptoms and the doctor doesn't understand

Jean Gilmore ● 5892d

"...my GP has installed a screen where patients are required to choose whether their consultation takes place in English or some foreign language and that whichever language option you choose the Doctor’s first language is the one other than English."Which, translated, means that although your doctor's first language is not English, he does nevertheless converse with you in English. So what's the problem?Three cheers for all the GPs who were born abroad. Without them, the NHS would surely collapse.

Robin Taylor ● 5892d