Concerns over Northampton medical centre with allegations of no heating, staff shortages, appointments cancelled and patients ignored

Former staff and patients have raised concerns about a Northampton GP surgery after claims that people using the centre were left in “freezing” conditions without heating or hot water.

Residents have spoken out against the Brook Medical Centre, in Ecton Brook, over difficult-to-access appointments and staff have accused the centre of putting ‘profit before patients’.

All claims have been put to eHarley Street, which holds the contract for the GP practice. A spokesperson declined to comment.

One former member of staff, who has asked not to be named, said that working in the surgery was like a “pressure cooker going off in our heads”. They told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that there were a number of issues with the surgery, including the boiler not working throughout the winter. They also claimed that a shortage of appropriate staff meant there was no one to carry out smear tests or child immunisations at points.

They added: “We had no heating in the building so we were all having to have little heaters plugged in and these were overloading the electric circuit so the power would trip. There was no hot water in the rooms and that had been going on since the summer when the boiler had broke down.

“It was absolutely freezing conditions – people used to wear fingerless gloves and hats to keep warm.”

‘I wouldn’t phone the doctors I was just so frightened’

Former patient Dawn Deane, 76, said she had struggled to use the centre’s new online booking system. She claimed she was twice referred to the surgery through 111 after her attempts to make an appointment over the phone were turned down.

She also claimed that she was not able to get her RSV vaccine, which is offered to those aged over 75 to protect them from the respiratory disease, at Brook and was subsequently in hospital with pneumonia over the winter. She said she only received the jab after moving to a new GP in January this year.

“I got to the point in the end where I wouldn’t phone the doctors I was just so frightened,” she told the LDRS. “I just felt like I was being brushed off. It makes you feel suicidal.

“When I couldn’t get the RSV injection I was getting so worked up about it because I needed it as I’m vulnerable with my chest. Nothing seemed to join up. It’s like one person would say one thing and another person would say another thing.”

She said she was later told the reason she couldn’t book an appointment with the surgery was because she had been using the wrong app, but questioned why staff weren’t able to inform her of the issue ‘months ago’ when she first raised concerns.

Brook Medical Centre patient Kirsty Candler, 39, also called the surgery’s booking system ‘absolutely ridiculous’. She said she had an elderly grandparent who struggled to access the online platform and was not given the option to ring up and book an appointment.

Frankie Gill, 27, said she had also changed surgery at the start of the year because of her treatment at the Brook Medical Centre.

She explained: “I just never felt like I could go there and fully open up about how I was feeling when I would like to think that a doctor should be the one person that I would feel safe talking to. I never felt like I was seeing the same person – it was just constantly a different doctor all the time.”

Ms Gill said she also raised complaints while she was at the surgery after a doctor made comments about her weight during an appointment for her son. She told the LDRS that she never received a reply from Brook.

An ex-member of staff said: “It was just profit before patients and it was the patients I felt sorry for. We didn’t have any communication with [management]. Things got out of hand and they just didn’t care about us at all.

“You go into work and think ‘what’s it going to be like today’ as well as being cold and not being able to give [patients] what they wanted. It was awful, my colleagues were sometimes just in tears because they couldn’t take it anymore.”

Adrian Jones, 60, who has been using the centre since 2007, said that, overall, he has a positive view of the surgery. He said he did have some problems in the past accessing appointments through the new booking system, but that all the staff he had spoken to in his experience had been “very friendly and very helpful”.

“From a personal view, I wouldn’t make any complaints about the service once you actually get there – the problem is getting through the door,” he said.

Patients encouraged to raise concerns with the practice, says ICB

James Hill, a councillor who represents the area on West Northamptonshire Council, said: “The things we are seeing here are unacceptable. I want to see the proper care being provided for our patients and that they’ve got confidence that they can call their doctors surgery.”

Northampton South MP Mike Reader also said he was aware that a number of residents were ‘unsatisfied’ with the service from the Brook Medical Centre. He told the LDRS that he has raised concerns with the ICB and CQC and is seeking a meeting with the GP operator next month.

A spokesperson for Northamptonshire ICB said: “Northamptonshire ICB holds GMS GP contracts with GP partners in the county, who have associations with eHarley Street.

“We have been monitoring the issues experienced in other areas and are actively speaking with the GP partners to seek their assurance on the potential impact of these outside issues and the local issues being experienced and how they are being addressed.

“As the commissioner of GP services, our priority is ensuring patients can access safe and high-quality services. We continue to monitor this situation and are working with local councillors and patient groups to ensure they are fully briefed.

“Patients who have concerns with the GP services they are receiving are encouraged to raise them with the practice in the first instance so they can be thoroughly investigated.”