‘This is Warrington not North Korea’: Patient, 25, is encouraged to find another GP practice after bosses at the surgery found she shared a link criticising it on Facebook
- Culcheth Medical Centre, near Warrington, wrote to the unidentified woman
- The letter warned her that staff often ‘monitor’ the social media of patients
A patient has been encouraged to find another GP practice after sharing an article that criticised the surgery on Facebook.
Bosses at Culcheth Medical Centre wrote to the 25-year-old, telling her that staff often ‘monitor’ the social media of patients.
In the letter, they sent a screen grab of a link from the unidentified woman’s local newspaper that she posted on a community Facebook group.
The Warrington Guardian article read: ‘Culcheth Medical Centre ordered to improve by health watchdog.’
Culcheth Medical Centre’s practice manager Shelley Moores penned a letter to the woman, saying they had ‘noticed’ she shared the post.
The letter added: ‘As the practice does not appear to be meeting your expectations, we politely suggest that you may wish to register with another.’
Bosses at Culcheth Medical Centre wrote to the 25-year-old, telling her that staff often ‘monitor’ the social media of patients
The surgery, located in Culcheth itself, made the suggestion ‘due to the breakdown in the patient/doctor relationship’.
The woman, who has been registered at the practice for around a decade, shared the post on Culcheth Memories and Chat. It has since been deleted.
‘I was a bit dumbfounded, I honestly didn’t expect that to happen. I opened the letter a bit confused,’ she told the Warrington Guardian.
‘I struggle to read as I am severely dyslexic and had my dad read it back to me when he got in.
‘We’ve all put things on social media we probably shouldn’t but, surely I have a right to share something about that whether that be good or bad.’
She added: ‘My main worry is that the practices talk to each other and my next practice would not take me because of this.
‘I would like to know how many people have been banned from the practice for similar things?
‘Are we not allowed an opinion? Do we live in a dictatorship where you’re banned for sharing a factual post? This is Warrington not North Korea.’
The original article she linked to was the newspaper reporting on an inspection at Culcheth Medical Centre by officials at the Care Quality Commission.
Inspectors uncovered ‘flaws’ in the surgery’s systems for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults, journalist Isobel Cotogni wrote.
The practice serves around 12,000 patients. Its most recent review on an official NHS website gave the surgery just one star.
The post, by a user called Dom, said: ‘I went into the surgery with a monthly repeat prescription to treat my severe depression and panic attacks.
‘I had messed up the dates and needed my prescription done today [that day] as I had ran out.’
They added that the staff who dealt with their need for a prescription was ‘extremely rude and wouldn’t help’.
Dom alleged they were told they were to blame, before being dealt the news that there was ‘nothing she can do’.
A spokesperson for the practice told the Warrington Guardian: ‘We always strive to ensure that we provide high quality services to all our patients and when a patient is unhappy with the services we provide we always offer them the opportunity to come and discuss their issues and concerns with the doctors and managers at the practice.
‘There are a number of ways in which patients can provide feedback to the practice, including patient surveys and the Patient Participation Group (PPG) and we actively encourage patients to share their patient experiences with us so that this can be used to inform changes to improve our services.
‘Unfortunately, when a patient does not wish to discuss issues and concerns with the practice, but is clearly very unhappy with the services, then the practice will offer to support the patient in transferring to another practice, should they wish to do so.
‘Finally, whilst we are disappointed with the fact that there are a small number of patients who take the decision to raise issues via social media and other means before making contact with the practice, the offer remains for those individuals to meet with the doctors or practice managers to discuss their concerns with a view to resolving any issues.’
MailOnline has approached NHS England for comment.