GP advice

Hi all,

I am aware that there was a thread around this topic 5 years ago. I thought it would be interesting to hear more recent experiences.
As we will be moving into the area we will need to choose a new GP. It looks like we will be pretty much equidistant from:

The village practice
Andover medical centre
The 157 medical practice
Stroud green medical centre

The ability to reliably book emergency appointments on the day if our children need one would be helpful. Being able to book other appointments on line, ideally without a very lengthy wait would also be appreciated.

Reviews seem fairly mixed, with patients looking more happy about Stroud Green Medical followed by Andover. However there is no mention about emergency appointments.
Can anyone share their experiences with any of the above practices?

Thanks!
Fede

Comments

  • Always managed to get an appointment at sgmc when calling first thing. But fuck me they're incompetent. I'd say 70% of the times one of my family have been they've been wrong or given bad advice.

    They once told me my hand was ok without really looking at it... And then a week later a 4cm wedge of wood popped out of the flesh inbetween my knuckles. Took months to get rid of the infection.
    They cancelled a hospital appointment my wife had waited 7 months for without consent or notification.
    And loads more stupid crap like that.

    And their online thing has never worked.

    So yeah... Looking forward to hearing others recommendations
  • I've gone online with Babylon, it's amazing and you can get a video appointment in 20 minutes.

    I've also had a blood test done and it was done at the Bupa at Kings Cross.

    It's still NHS.
  • If you're ok looking a bit further afield, the queenswood medical practice is great! Part of sg is in its catchment
  • grennersgrenners Ferme Park Road, N4
    I second Queenswood. Some N4 post codes are in the catchment.
  • Queens wood gets another vote here. W7 bus right there.
  • @HolbornFox that's exciting. I'm signing up
    Cheers man
  • @joust it is amazing, the other day I had a slight issue and managed to speak to a GP immediately, on a Sunday night.

    I was with Hanley Road Surgery before where they basically tell you that you cannot have an appointment as they are too busy.
  • I signed up. It took 2 minutes. App looks good too.

    I might actually start using the doctors now
  • Thank you all for the replies. I am afraid queenswood is a bit far from us, I wouldn’t want to make the journey on the bus with small children.

    Babylon looks very interesting. I tried to find information about vaccinations for the little ones but I couldn’t find anything (only a mention they don’t deal with travel vaccinations). @HolbornFox did you ever use it for children? My wife and I are considering it at least for ourselves.
  • @Fireddo No, just for me at this point.
  • I have Babylon and it's quite useful, especially if you need to see someone asap.
    However, for certain things you will still need to go through your GP or to physically go to your practice, so I'd suggest to keep looking around anyway.
  • edited February 2020
    You may have to physically see a GP for certain things but you can actually get that appointment easily after having an initial assessment in minutes via video link first.

    ---

    That Wired article:

    Documents show the Hammersmith & Fulham CCG has struggled to cope financially with the strain put on it by Babylon.

    Further on:

    The Hammersmith & Fulham CCG is paying market research firm Ipsos Mori £250,000 to analyse what impact GP at Hand has had on the NHS.

  • I wonder if there is cherry picking as younger probably fitter people will use the App? not doddery old folks like I know. It would be very interesting to see the age and illness profile of its users.

    The initial video consultation is not such a bad idea as it must triage out quite a few folks by sending them to a pharmacy. That way the Practice GP pockets more of the annual fee (£146 pa) they receive per patient whether they visit or not. The reduced practice costs must be considerable. I bet the GPs who are running this are doing much better salary (profit) than the average GP pay of £90k.

    For some reason I don't understand they only dish out private prescriptions not NHS ones ?
  • I also meant to say that I have found the 157 practice okay and they have massively improved over the past few years and are now part of North London Partners which I suspect will be driving up standards across practices in our area.
  • Andover has been fine for me, able to get same-day appointments when needed only frustration I've had is some issues repeat prescriptions but that has been resolved.
  • @Ali I had a prescription from them, they sent it directly to the pharmacy so I didn't know it was private (and have never actually heard of that before), I wonder what that's about.

    I'm under no illusions as to the amount of money they must be making, I just know that I literally couldn't get a doctor's appointment and now I can.
  • Another shout is the Woodberry down one
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