Bedhampton mother slams surgery for '˜rude' reception

A MOTHER has told of her worrying experience at a doctor's surgery after trying to get treatment for her infant son.
Alicia Theakston's son 16-month-old son Jesse was suffering from conjunctivitisAlicia Theakston's son 16-month-old son Jesse was suffering from conjunctivitis
Alicia Theakston's son 16-month-old son Jesse was suffering from conjunctivitis

Alicia Theakston, 35, has accused the ‘extremely rude’ staff at Stakes Lodge Surgery in Waterlooville of refusing to treat her son Jesse, who was suffering from a severe bout of conjunctivitis.

Alicia, from Bedhampton, says that 16-month-old Jesse has battled sudden outbreaks of the condition for most of his life, and claims the surgery on Lavender Road is aware of this.

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She said: ‘I phoned them at about 4pm and said that his conjunctivitis is starting up again. I asked if they could get a doctor to call me back just so I could get a prescription for some eyedrops.

‘The doctor called me back and said that they needed to see Jesse, that there was nothing they could do at the moment but to bring him back into surgery at 8am the following morning.’

Alicia agreed to the surgery’s request, but arrived in the morning to find that there was no appointment.

She said: ‘I asked if I could see someone. I didn’t mind waiting, but I was told there was absolutely nothing they could do.

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‘At this point, Jesse was in a lot of pain and I said that I’d already gone through the whole night with him and I’d got down there at the time they stated.’

A furious Alicia attempted to lodge a complaint, but the receptionist allegedly refused to give her the manager’s name.

Although a GP was able to prescribe eyedrops for Jesse later that day, Alicia felt that her trust in Stakes Lodge had been damaged beyond repair, and has said that she will be moving surgeries.

Alicia said: ‘I’ve had this situation many times with the surgery, this is about the fifth time now. I’ve tried to get appointments, and I’ve gone down there and they told me that there’s nothing on the system for me.

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The reception staff are not helpful one bit – it feels like they’re just trying to shut you out the door, with no interest in helping you.’

A GP from Stakes Lodge has advised patients to approach the surgery directly with any concerns, in order to ‘try to address the cause of their distress’.

Dr Roderick Bowerman said: ‘It is never good to hear that any of our patients are unhappy with the service we have given them, and if there has been a problem we would always want to talk to the person concerned to hear what has gone wrong, and to see what we can do to put the situation right.

‘Like all GP surgeries, we face intense and growing demands on our staff, and we know that it can be difficult for us to be able to offer people appointments as quickly as they would like – as appears to have been part of the problem in this case.

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‘We do offer a “same day” service, but we appreciate that it is difficult to always strike the right balance between making both routine and urgent appointments available, and we always keep our systems under review to see if a new approach could work better.’