Eleven items a month, blister-packed, delivered on a Thursday by Dai, who waits while I check it. When the surgery changed one of them, Sian rang me before the pack went out to explain. Thirty years and never once a wrong tablet.
Reviews
What Caerphilly says.
Six reviews, one for each thing we do, including the four-star one about the Saturday flu queue. The full set is on the review platforms we are listed on, and every one is from a patient whose record is in the system.
Collected by a third-party review platform. Names shortened at the reviewers' request.
Sore throat on a Saturday, no chance of the GP. Walked in, swab test in the consultation room, antibiotics on the NHS in fifteen minutes, free. I did not know this service existed. Everyone should.
Three weeks in Vietnam and Cambodia. Owen did the consultation for nothing, told us which jabs the NHS covered (more than we thought), priced the rest on a sheet, and had us done in two visits. The surgery had quoted six weeks and a fortune.
Flu jab in five minutes on a Tuesday, excellent. Four stars because I tried on a Saturday first and the queue was out of the door; they now book Saturdays, which is the right fix, but it cost me a wasted trip.
Popped in for the free blood pressure check because I was passing. 168 over 102. Home monitor for a day, report to the GP, on tablets within the week. I had no symptoms at all. That check probably saved me a stroke.
Came out of the Heath with nine new medicines and no idea what half of them were for. Sian did a discharge review within the week, found one duplicate and one that clashed, wrote to the GP, and I have a sheet on the fridge I understand.
About the four stars
Gareth queued out of the door on a Saturday. Saturdays are booked now.
The first Saturday of flu season has two pharmacists, one consultation room each, and half of Caerphilly who could not come in the week. In October we had a queue to the car park and Gareth, rightly, went home. Since then Saturday jabs are booked, by phone or the form, in five-minute slots, and weekdays stay walk-in. We also added Thursday evening flu clinics until seven for the people who work. It cost Gareth a trip and it cost us a star, and the fix was the right one.
Join the list.
Order a prescription, have a flu jab, use the common ailments service, and tell the next patient what it was like. Good or bad, it stays up.