River Lodge Surgery

Was shocked and horrified when I received an email from the surgery that my regular 3 monthly Vitamin B12 injection was now to be replaced by a daily Vitamin B12 tablet , without any prior notification/involvement /consultation, or any discussion with me, about a medical condition that was diagnosed several years ago by a consultant at the Brighton Royal Sussex County Hospital .
No reasons given, no indication of any recent research, no examination or testing taking place or risk factors identified. Am now concerned if I was misdiagnosed by a consultant several years ago - purely on a pharmaceutical audit/cost cutting exercise presumably with no medical involvement. No indication from NICE that anything has changed and injections are to be replaced by a tablet.
What is more concerning is that a tablet/medication has been added to my prescription list without my agreement or consent , again without my involvement/consultation or full explanation or agreement that justifies it.
Appears to be a failure to understand the condition or the reason why there is a difference between an injection and the taking of a tablet for a Vitamin B12 deficiency.
Am gravely concerned that other patients may be inappropriately subject to the same audit and process.

Long wait on the phone. Difficult if you are working full time. E consult actually unavailable quite a lot outside normal working hours. It has taken me several months to actually be able to speak to a doctor about starting HRT - I think this is unacceptable. For some patient groups the service seems good, but for others terrible. More thought needs to be given to diverse patient groups

Known SH pt, since amalgamation any surgery answers, on my occasion answered by Ringmer, receptionist extremely rude and certainly not at all helpful.

It's impossible to get through to the receptionist since the merger. It takes ages on hold. And that's just to speak to the receptionist. You then have to explain your symptoms to them and they may get a doc to call you back, 'anytime this afternoon'. It really does put me off from even trying to get an appointment

I have been a lifelong patient of Anchor Field Surgery in Ringmer, which is a branch of River Lodge. Over the last few years, I have had appointments at both Anchor Field and River Lodge surgeries, for one of ailments and longer term mental health issues. Generally I have always found it easy to get an appointment at the appropriate time, as well as have good follow up from the doctors and nurses as needed. I have occasionally had some questionable follow ups when I had an ongoing bout of tonsillitis, but this was likely not helped by the fact that it was an out of hours on call doctor who had been initially involved, and they had suggested I arrange a follow up with my surgery. Other than this, I cannot fault the surgery.

I fell down the stairs in November 2018 and it took them 3 weeks to diagnose a fracture because they kept telling me it was a sprain. I had to walk around in a lot of pain as they repeatedly refused to xray my foot. this has caused me to suffer prolonged pain

River Lodge surgery is very good, I can always get an appointment.

Difficult to get an appointment, been told I have a 3 week wait.

Apart from that the surgery is great.

My Daughter uses a range of services, however no information is ever shared - it makes it very difficult.

GP is never kept up to date