On 8 Jan 2021 at 11:50am Formerly AC-T wrote:
I know there's a pandemic going on, and doctors are very busy, but has anyone ever managed to get through on the phone in under 30 minutes since all the practices merged?
I know River Lodge was always a nightmare to get through to, but I was registered at St Andrews, and rarely had to wait long apart from first thing in the morning when everyone was trying to make appointments.
It seems the "new" service has adopted the River Lodge policy of not having enough people to answer the phones.
On 8 Jan 2021 at 1:24pm Green Sleeves wrote:
I think I've only tried calling them once since the merger, and I do recall hearing that very formal sounding bloke on the automated message repeating about their "bulge in demand" at least 40 times, so that is surely over 30 minutes....
I can't help but feeling we should scapegoat the EU or immigrants for this.....just feels so natural and effortless in thought.
On 8 Jan 2021 at 7:59pm Sussex Jim wrote:
I got through in about 2-3 minutes earlier this week- about 10.00. but I think that may be an exception. I have found it easier to walk in to Reception at Anchor Field to arrange an appointment in person ( when passing that way).
On 9 Jan 2021 at 9:35am Tom Pain wrote:
It's hard not to notice that greenie is the only person voicing these negative scapegoating sentiments. If the forum was rife with them it would be understandable, but I fear this only encourages the practice.
On 9 Jan 2021 at 3:36pm Formerly AC-T wrote:
I doubt if it's possible to stroll into a surgery to make an appointment at the moment, Jim.
On 9 Jan 2021 at 5:00pm IDM wrote:
I am pleased that someone has started a thread on this, beating me to it. The Foundry has trumpeted about a wonderful integration; but is it? When first set up, the automatic answering service gave much information about websites for repeat subscriptions, the many options for the service required and other waffle. Only after all this were you told about dialling 999 (about 90 seconds). I am sure that I am not the only person who railed against this and they have now changed it. The new service is now supposed to be integrated, but as far as I can see, that is for appointments only. With staff having to deal with four surgeries' worth of appointments,it is hardly surprising that there are delays in answering. Everybody I know has been given an appointment at their "old" sugery, rather than the earliest appointment somewhere. Some "old" sugeries had specialists in particular conditions, but there appears that these are not available to other "old" surgeries. At present the claimed integration is mainly cosmetic and not real. This is because the proposed integration is obviously running seriously behind time It's a bit rich that the new building is claimed to be closer to the town centre; from previous research, I know that the actual town (not district) centre is obout at the war memorial. Surgery staff you ask have no idea when the new building will be completed. Integration is, at the moment, a sham.
[to be continued]
On 9 Jan 2021 at 11:05pm Tom Pain wrote:
Integrated is one of the new buzz words like diversity that mean everything and nothing. We have a service economy, that means being economical with the service. How else can operation moonshot be paid for?
On 9 Jan 2021 at 11:49pm IDM wrote:
I don't understand TP's latest.
The Foundry's role in mental health is a bit wooly. To be a true primary health care service it needs to incorporate support currently offered by 47A and Hill Rise (in Peacehaven). Also dentistry - but the chance of this happening is about that of the Archbishop of Canterbury being burnt at Bonfire.
I think I checked whether Foundry was a charity, to be diverted to the companies' register. One might think a union of partnerships might become a superpatnership. But no. Foundry Healthcare is actually a limited company. It was incorporated about three years ago. Since then, it has almost been struck off twice (I assume for inactivity). It has not shown any transactions in accounts, merely filing statements explaining itself. I wonder who paid for these and what they will receive in return. Most midblowingly, the company has three directors (some of the GPs). And the same three people are also the only shareholders! If the company makes a profit, the diirectors can declare a dividend to pay themselves whatever they want. Is this really the way a public service body should operate?
What happens if the company goes bust? With the old system, if a surgery went bust there would still have been the other three to pick up the pieces. Now, if things go wrong, we have no primary care in the catchment area. I hope that, if that happened, the real NHS or the DHSC would bail us out. One can only hope!
On 10 Jan 2021 at 10:19am Formerly AC-T wrote:
The service at 47a is delivered under a county-wide contract. All the Wellness Centres in the county are. I'm not sure if the contract is with the CCGs or Sussex NHS Partnership. The services at Hill Rise are statutory NHS MH services, so quite different.
And GPs are private contractors, have been since Nye Bevan "stuffed their mouths with gold" in order to secure their compliance in establishing the NHS, so I'm not at all surprised to hear that Foundry Healthcare is a private company.
On 10 Jan 2021 at 2:40pm jrsussex wrote:
It took my next door neighbour 6 days to get through to Foundry Healthcare. She was hospitalised as a result. They are a farce and a dangerous farce at that. A retrograde step for Lewes
On 10 Jan 2021 at 3:08pm Mark wrote:
AC-T! I'm shocked that you would say this thing against Nye Bevan. He stuffed their mouths with gold in order to drag them (private contractors), kicking and screaming under the government umbrella. And then John Major recreated them as private businesses.
On 10 Jan 2021 at 3:11pm Mark wrote:
But actually, re-reading, I can see your point.
On 10 Jan 2021 at 3:29pm Tom Pain wrote:
Use your imagination idm, it's a 3D world out there.
On 10 Jan 2021 at 9:20pm Local99 wrote:
The main issue with the Foundry is that it's a monopoly. I've found nothing at all has improved, and many aspects have deteriorated. But no longer can you change who you;re registered with. Not good.
On 10 Jan 2021 at 11:43pm Basil wrote:
Tom Pain wrote: 'Integrated is one of the new buzz words like diversity that mean everything and nothing.'
What fascinates me is why people say 'diversity' when they mean 'difference'... Orher words that go in and then out of fashion with the clueless are 'inspirational', 'existential' and - in covid times - 'protocols'. I'm sure others can think of more.
On 11 Jan 2021 at 8:43am Formerly AC-T wrote:
I think the preference for diverse rather than difference is because difference implies that there is a norm. Something that is "different" must, by definition, be different from something else.
Diverse, otoh, carries no sense of there being a norm or standard, merely that the subject is varied in nature. And, let's face it, human nature is infinitely varied.
On 11 Jan 2021 at 11:18pm Basil wrote:
Formerly AC-T wrote: 'I think the preference for diverse rather than difference is because difference implies that there is a norm.'
Really? I tought 'different' meant 'not the same as something else'. These buzzwords often begin in personnel departments (sorry, human resources') and then spread through the workforce into the real world. I think 'within' for 'in' began there... I used to wonder when people would start writing 'upon' for 'on'... Just like clockwork it appeared.
On 28 Jan 2021 at 9:34am Cedric wrote:
It looks like the Foundry Healthcare is forging ahead with their vaccine programme as someone I know who is in his mid 70’s has been called in for one this week.
On 18 Mar 2021 at 5:26pm IDM wrote:
Formerly AC-T, 10 Jan, 10-19
Thanks for the info; things are obviously more complicated than I thought. In my innocence, I had thought that we had a golden opportunity here to get primary care properly integrated (sorry TP). It looks like the sort of arrangements for which I was yearning will have to be done nationally. Well, I'll do my best.
What is the advantage of being a company? Why hadn't the "old" surgeries already done it?
Hill Rise staff give therapy at Orchard House (on the Victoria site) and at 47a. I hope that at least that work could be moved to the new building, saving gadding about and taxi fares.
On 21 Mar 2021 at 11:54pm IDM wrote:
Basil 11 Jan
"On" means above something, stationary in relationship to it and (usually) touching. "He sat on the bench on the platform." "Upon" means movement to become above something. "The tiler fell upon the platform from the roof". "The engineer climbed upon the platform from the trackbed". Of course, in modern everyday English, one would not use "upon" but "onto".