Google Review Replies

In the past we always reply to our Google reviews. However we stopped monitoring and replying after sometime because Google refused to remove some replies which we told them were outright lies and defamatory. There was also a maximum word limit imposed which we felt was not sufficient. We will try to reply here if we have the time.

On 29.1.2024 Munah Shaik wrote:
Horrible experience! I arrived almost at 9am and only got to see him at 11.09am! He asked me without looking at me what was wrong. Told him my eye is swollen. Without looking at my eye he went on to ask other questions like “are you stressed? Do you always get angry? Do you cry a lot? Are you going to get a divorce?” I’m like??! How is this relevant?! Only after did he shine a light in my eye to check my eye but only for a brief moment cos he wasn’t gentle with my eye and it hurt. He didn’t try to check again and prescribed my meds. I would have just left the clinic but after waiting for 2 hours, I just needed to get the meds and leave! Never again will I come back here for a consult!

Our reply:
We thank the patient for taking her precious time in logging in and writing the review. Such reviews help us identify our weaknesses and improve our service.
From our clinical records, the patient was registered at 9.47 am and was seen by the doctor at 11.10am. The clinic was crowded as it was a Monday morning. The patient waited for about one hour.
The patient attended our clinic for some eye problem and the doctor had to type in the history into the computer system.  All doctors are trained to get a full history first, before going on to a physical examination. Therefore we do not examine the eye until a full history is taken. The patient was already seen by another clinic and given some eye medication, which did not help. The patient was advised to go to the A and E if it was associated with another symptom.
The doctor examined the eye for 1 second only and the patient complained of tenderness. The doctor said that he will stop examining immediately, as patient appeared easily irritable. We try to cause as little pain for the patient as possible. He asked if the patient was under some stress lately. He asked if patient has been moody, bad tempered or forgetful lately. He asked if there were stress events like divorce. This was asked in a soft, gentle  and calm manner in case it hits any raw nerve. We need to make an accurate diagnosis. It turns out that the patient also had another medical condition and was given medical advice for that.
Mental symptoms like irritability, confusion, disturbed thought patterns and forgetfulness are routine questions as they are associated with medical conditions that patients may not have insight or aware of.
The patient was given medications for the eye. 
The patient was also given medication for another condition unrelated to the eye. It was requested by the patient.

We practise a higher form of primary care by to treating all of our patients holistically and not only with their presenting complaint. We also do opportunistic screening and help pick up medical conditions that patients may not even be aware of. We are very careful with our work and spend try to spend as much time as possible on each patient and in doing so , try to make as little error as possible.
Although the patient came to see us for management of her eye, our doctor was able to pick up accurately another medical condition that the patient did not mention, and was given medication for it. We hope this medication is a starting point to make her quality of life better, other than just treating the eye. We apologise for the discomfort caused.

Tycen Teo wrote in 29.9.23

Highly recommend you to see the review before making a visit for consultation. It is my very first time bringing my worker here. I arrived at 11.40pm, and were rejected registration and told to come back at 2:00pm later? Like that might as well, I bring my worker to the polyclinic instead? Counter staff's voice so soft that I have to ask twice what she is talking about. We are not in a library, mind you.

Our reply:
We thank the patient for taking her precious time in logging in and writing the review. Such reviews help us identify our weaknesses and improve our service.
Our closing time is the time we stop work and not the time we stop registration. Our clinic stops work at 12 noon. At that time there were still patient in the queue. We may not be able to continue working after  the closing time if the doctor is tired or has prior meeting arranged.We apologise for the inconvenience.

LLllNG WROTE:
DO NOT visit this clinic unless you're very free. The doctor has zero respect for people's time. I was waiting for close to 2 hours. Then wait another 20 min just to pay. The counter staff very free also so I think the doctor is just dilly dally with his prescription.. I notice there is a 20 min gap between consultation. Don't know what the doctor is doing.

Our reply:
During the Covid pandemic, there were additional requirements that takes up a lot of time behind the scene. Patients with upper respiratory tract symptoms had to be seen in a separate room to prevent cross infection with other patients. This isolation room had to be sterilised between patients and the doctor had to changed his full PPE every time he changed room. He had to change his gown, N95 mask ,gloves and cap which takes time. On top of that, he has to notify, by typing into the internet, to MOH the particulars and details of the patient. The patient had to be swabbed and the particulars and results typed into the laboratory request site and MOH’s website. If the patient is given special Covid medications, the doctor has to log into the patient’s NEHR record into the internet to check for drug interactions as well as update MOH that the patient was given this expensive medications. All these are on top of the patient’s usual history taking, physical examination and dispensing of medications. One patient can easily take up 20 minutes and we can only see about 3 patients per hour. There was a time when MOH advised citizens not to attend GP clinic even if they were Covid positive because we were overwhelmed by the additional work involved. We thank the patient for taking her precious time in logging in and writing the review. Such reviews help us identify our weaknesses and improve our service.We hope everyone can understand that we were overwhelmed.

June 2023 ,Mikki Sim wrote:
similar to all other experiences that the others encountered, this is indeed the worst private clinic I have ever been to. doctor trying so hard to be “funny” does not help with the efficiency nor consultation. the clinic had only 3 people but the waiting time was over an hour. ridiculous and I will never come back again.

We replied in March 2024,
During the Covid pandemic, there were additional requirements that takes up a lot of time behind the scene. Patients with upper respiratory tract symptoms had to be seen in a separate room to prevent cross infection with other patients. This isolation room had to be sterilised between patients and the doctor had to changed his full PPE every time he changed room. He had to change his gown, N95 mask ,gloves and cap which takes time. On top of that, he has to notify, by typing into the internet, to MOH the particulars and details of the patient. The patient had to be swabbed and the particulars and results typed into the laboratory request site and MOH’s website. If the patient is given special Covid medications, the doctor has to log into the patient’s NEHR record into the internet to check for drug interactions as well as update MOH that the patient was given this expensive medications. All these are on top of the patient’s usual history taking, physical examination and dispensing of medications. One patient can easily take up 20 minutes and we can only see about 3 patients per hour. There was a time when MOH advised citizens not to attend GP clinic even if they were Covid positive because we were overwhelmed by the additional work involved. We thank the patient for taking her precious time in logging in and writing the review. Such reviews help us identify our weaknesses and improve our service.We hope everyone can understand that we were overwhelmed.

Mikki Sim Replied in 3. March 2024,:
the reply simply did not make sense. firstly, 8 months ago was way past the active COVID period already and I was NOT COVID positive so the swab did not apply to me. secondly, my main point is the doctor was trying to be “funny” by making stupid jokes instead of trying to see the patients faster. full of nonsense.
 

On 17.3.2024 we replied,

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We are sorry that you did not like our response. We thought that you were unhappy that your waiting time was over an hour for 3 patients, as you stated.

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You came on 17.6.23  to collect your lab result. In June 2023, we still had to follow Covid procedures as there were still active Covid cases, and we need to protect our elderly, pregnant and young children.

We informed you that we cannot just give you the results over the counter as we had to discuss some issues about the result with you. According to our system we registered you at 9.15am and you were seen at 9.59am. During registration, you asked us how many patients before your turn and we informed you.

At that time, two patients were seen together at the same consultation : they were mother and child, so it took longer than usual. They asked a lot of questions and we cannot stop them.

The following patient did not take up much time.

After that we had to settle the first patient of the morning, as he was seeing us for chronic illnesses, and we had to prepare his blood and urine tests to send to the laboratory, which will arrive any moment.

When it was your turn, my nurse wrongly called another patient because there was an error in the computer queue due to earlier data entry. You angrily pointed it out. We already allowed you to enter the consultation room before him, so you were not skipped any turn. 

You appeared unhappy as you entered the room. 

We usually try our best to be friendly to all our patients by engaging in small talk and humour with our patients so as to develop a strong rapport.  Studies and textbooks has shown that a good doctor patient relationship improves patient outcomes, compliance and follow ups. Your husband, who has been seeing us since he was a baby, was also in the room, and it was like a pleasant meeting up of old friends. We did not charge you for the visit. Most of our patients appreciate our friendliness and patience. We are sorry that you view it from a different perspective and we wish you a happy marriage with your husband.

CL wrote:
If you don't mind being told to leave after 15 min of waiting in queue and to wait outside because your toddler is irritating them (waited for more than an hour) but queue is moving at snail speed (speaks volumes about their efficiency) - then go for it.
Zero empathy for patients and deserve no star at all.

Our reply:
We thank the patient for taking his precious time in logging in and writing the review. Such reviews help us identify our weaknesses and improve our service.
There was a child who wish to be registered. However we informed the father that  it is near closing time and there were many patients already in the queue, and we could not register them and advised them to attend another clinic, However the father insisted that we attend to your child. We accommodated and agreed provided that he brings his child elsewhere ,while waiting ,and we will telephone him to return when it is their turn. This is because the child was making a lot of noise. We had to tell the child to stop kicking the wooden cabinet..  However they persisted  in remaining in the clinic and we had to remind them repeatedly to reduce the volume. The noise was distracting the doctor’s attention and concentration while he was attending to other patients, even though the door of the consultation room was closed. The doctor was afraid that he may make a mistake while attending to another patient due to the noise. This is unfair to the other patient and may result in a medical error. The other patients are equally important. The doctor could not carry on with his work and had to leave the clinic for 5 minutes. After the doctor returned to the clinic, the patient left the queue. We apologise that the door and partitions are not sound proof, and seek our patients' cooperation in reducing their volume in the waiting area.

Muhammad Nurhan wrote: 
Worst clinic in woodlands waiting time 2 hours eventhough there's only 3-4 patients?? Idk about weekdays but Every sunday fans are always switched off for some reason?? Its not even closing hours yet but they switched off every fan. Doctor takes his own bloody time, i understand that doctors too are tired but this is so on purpose, and 47 dollars for consultation only?!? Absurd

Our reply:
We thank the patient for taking his precious time in logging in and writing the review. Such reviews help us identify our weaknesses and improve our service. A national serviceman arrived at our clinic after the closing time on a Sunday. He was seen 1.5 hours later. There were more than 3 patients before his turn. We switch off everything after the closing time to encourage patients not to attend after the closing time. He requested for more days of medical leave than what we can give. We  collected $29 cash as copayment. We apologise that we have to be ethical.