Hamilton East Medical Centre

I have been a patient at this center since I was child and it used to be one of the most well respected health care centers in Hamilton. I am sad to say however, that this is no long the medical center I remember. The receptionists are extremely rude and degrading. It is ridiculously hard to book an appointment. They will not book an appointment when you first call them, they put you on the 'triage' list and say that someone will call you back to book an appointment, and they never call. The newer doctors have no compassion for their clients. I would not recommend this medical center if you are experiencing mental health issues. They will come across very judgmental and unsympathetic. Every time I take my children in there, they pretty much tell me not to bring my children in unless they are 'really unwell'. Which of course is extremely alarming. 100% would NOT recommend!

Wouldn't recommend this center if you have any serious mental health issues. The front of house people are enough to make you suicidal and they do not give two flying rats if they make your mental illnesses worse.
Doctors there are nice but do not seem at all compitent when it comes to helping people with mental health problems.

Reception staff need to be replaced, they are rude and do not care for anyone's mental health issues.
I myself suffer anxiety and depression terribly and after run ins with rude staff who book me in to see doctors who I have never given permission to see my medical files I have left there in tears and needing the crisis aversion teams help.
Most of the doctors seem to think generalizing and stereotyping a person is the way to treat their illness.
Even after repeatedly telling my doctor that the medication they have me on makes me dopey they refuse to believe me because "generally" most people don't feel that.well sorry to say but generalizing isn't what a doctor should be doing we are all individuals and should be treated as such.
Sad one star for this business until they can fix the issues they have.

The reception staff really let this place down 100%,
The Indian receptionist is the rudest person ever if this was a cafe and she was front of house you wouldn't have a business within 6 months.
I think she forgets customers pay her wages.

Being rude to other clients whom suffer mental health issues unbelievable I will never refer another client there way ever again.

Of course this practice can rest on their laurels but if it was a new practice they'd be dead fish in no time at all.

People come because they're ill. OBVIOUSLY.
That said they deserve compassion and kindness not blatant belligerence and this complaint I'd on behalf of 3 clients whom felt degraded by this silly cow.

I pity the next person whom deals with this wretched unethical attitude and I really don't think that she should remain employed there.

She is a cancer to this business.

As other people have commented, the receptionist staff can be completely abysmal. The old reception Crew, before they left were fantastic, they used to call me by my name, occasionally give me a hug when I needed one, never once hung up on me in over 10 years and understood that I have panic attacks. I have now been hung up on three times, once because I was panicking, as I have severe anxiety, and accused of being angry and explained this but still got hung up on, and told not to be angry. *Censored* And I'm sick of the miss information that a lot of them give us. Like fair enough you haven't had a drop-in doctor for over a year. But I've been told regularly you cannot any longer see another doctor if yours is not available. Thankfully I was given advice over the phone by a nurse who I have the name of and said I can use if I have this trouble again. Who said and I quote. That is absolutely untrue, doctors prefer to see their own patients, but if you need to see a doctor and others are available you are perfectly fine to make an appointment. I told her that I have been to specifically told that this is no longer possible and so have other people including a close friend of mine. As a rule these people have zero clinical training, and telling somebody that there are angry after you explain that it's on your file you have severe anxiety and you're just having a panic not angry and then being hung up on is not acceptable. I will now be making my second official complaint and will be requesting feedback from the manager of the medical centre. By the way, my new doctor is awesome, he has a rather obscure sense of humour, like myself which makes me feel worthwhile. I'm sorry the all u doctors who've been completely miss represented by your front of house staff. Please train your receptionists properly, as a lot of them but not all, can be ridiculously rude, seem to have absolutely no empathy, and feed you miss information. A lot of doctors I recommend; but a few of them have serious anger issues. My previous doctor in recent years just seem to be dis-interested in anything I had to say, he came across as not at all listening. Just be careful who you deal with on reception, as some of them seem to bring their ego to work, and this should be left locked in a box, at home.

Rang them today in behalf of my workmate which does not speak a lot of English, specially on the phone. Happens that his son, 6yo which is a patient of yours and had high fever and dry cough all night, so we are trying to know what to do.
Got told that if "he's breathing" we should wait for a call back. I've said if he's not breathing wouldn't he be dying? The receptionist got very mad at me and ended up haninging up without even asking the kids name. Again, your patient.

Well I came here to give you a bad review and realised you've already got plenty of it. Glad I'm not with you guys and btw the poor kid is going to Anglesea.

I haven't been enrolled in a few months now and this is because I was told I am no longer welcome at this medical centre because of my mental health.

There was no mention of supports, or passing me onto a mental health service because the GP couldnt manage my mental health. I was told the GP could not accept me back as a patient because I was "too difficult". This was really disheartening and it makes it really difficut to trust in other medical centres and recieve support moving forward. I have never had a bad experience with a medical centre until my mental health became a problem.

If you have any challenges with mental health I would be very careful with staying enrolled at this medical centre or thinking of enrolling into this medical centre.

Doctors are good but.half off the admin staff they don't know what they doing. I think they need to learn communication skills.

Abysmal customer service from front desk staff. I didn't even get see the doctor because of their upfront rudeness. Definitely not a way to run a business with people whom face patients being rude and unwelcome. Lack of people and communication kill was evident. Not my loss, was able to get into a different medical centre. Normally not someone who leaves reviews but the amount of lack of empathy Definitely prompted me to do so. If there was 0/5 I would have Definitely selected that.

My own doctor is away at present, unbeknown to me. I rang the phone number & asked one of the staff on the phones, named sharon, couldn't find anything, also couldn't find out who is looking after my doctor's patients while is away! I then decided to email the Manager of HEMC, she actually told me with the new computer system, is hard for them to find out! Now l have been given an update of when my own doctor will be back!

I think the care here is really excellent. However, the call / support seems to be a bit patchy. Everyone is always super kind once you get them on the phone but good luck getting through. No matter what time of day I call, I'm waiting on the line from 5-10 minutes at minimum. I find the Centre says they are open at 8am but they do not start answering the phones until at least 8: 30am. During Level 3 lockdown, my family had an appointment for flu shots and were told to call from the parking lot to have someone escort us in. But they never answered the phone for over 10 min while we waited in the parking lot!

Don't bother. Everyone who works here is terrible with people, their job, and doesn't care about you.

Phone systems are shocking to say the least. 17 minutes to drive there and phone still ringing. Suggested by them ring after 2PM. Pharmacy across car park can get thru for you on different lines!

Wish I cud give 0/5.even 1 star is overrating.their customer service was appalling at best. The receptionist was okay but the nurse (Helen) was extremely rude and unhelpful. I would strongly advise people to avoid her.

Waiting is way too long. I called on Wednesday morning, the earliest appointment is next Tuesday and this is in summer.
I hate to think what it's going to be like in winter months.
HEMC used to have emergency doctors which they don't now (as receptionist said to me). So if you are sick, you need to go to another clinic (they said to us to go to Anglesea!). So what's the point of registering?
Dr Andrew hasn't been available for more than 3 months now and the staff don't know if he is coming back or not.

Disappointing.

The doctor I saw was more worried about degrading me than dealing with my multiple issues including head injury, heart issues and fetal alc syndrome.never felt more humiliated and worthless in my life. Paid for 45min which was over 100 dollars! So if you want to pay good money to be treated like scum this is the place for you!

Do not go to Dr Khouri if you have mental health problems! It had taken a lot of convincing to get my husband to see a GP about his depression. Already spent a lot of money on a private psych but needed more help. When I said how long the depression had been going on, without bothering to ask what else we had tried, Dr Khouri said "Why have you waited until so close to the Christmas holidays to deal with this? "

So condescending. This is exactly what my husband feared about seeing a doctor in the first place. He left immediately which meant the whole trip, taking time off work, all the days convincing him not to cancel the appointment were wasted. Definitely will be harder to get him to see a doctor next time! No wonder there's a suicide epidemic if the person who is supposed to be our first point of contact in the health system acts like this.

Had to wait over half an hour for a scheduled appointment, and once I was finally seen I was told "we can run a test but it will probably be negative" and that was it, also cost $47 very unimpressed.

I couldn't have an appointment with my gp doctor in HEMC to renew my prescription and change my medicine to a lower dose, so I took an appointment with Dr Zig who didn't pay any attention to me at all when I was talking to him.he was doing something in the computer.

I really recommend this place, especially Dr. Andrew, always willing to listen, friendly and effective. Also the reception team, most are very friendly and efficient. The waiting time is correct and fair.