Outer-West Gateshead - The User Voice on GP services in Crawcrook, Rowland’s Gill, Grange Road & Blaydon practices

Report - 1 February 2024

Healthwatch Gateshead received intelligence from the Gateshead Health and Wellbeing Board that users of the Crawcrook, Rowland’s Gill, Grange Road & Blaydon GP practices had expressed concern and disappointment with the services they received at these sites, and these comments led Healthwatch Gateshead to focus on three issues in particular:
  • Ease of booking appointments
  • Waiting times for appointments
  • Public perception of the practices

Many of the problems that have been reported on in this survey are issues that are prevalent nationwide. Issues such as a lack of available appointments, and therefore the difficulty providing follow-up appointments, as well as difficulty getting through via phone are not isolated to these four sites alone. However, Healthwatch Gateshead believes that the systems and processes that impact these issues can be improved on a practice-by-practice basis.

Our report recommends:

  • A review of the appointment booking system. 
  • Looking at how follow-up care (from tests and procedures) can be administered more effectively. 
  • Improvements to the telephony appointment booking.

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Outer-west Gateshead GP report
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