It feels a little strange to be reviewing a surgery, but I am almost evangelical about how great…read moreKnock Medical Centre is. No one likes going to the doctor, so if you have to go it may as well be as best an experience as you can manage, and that is what you get here. Appointments are easy enough to get and all staff, from reception to nurses and all the doctors are so nice. While doctors are constantly under pressure to see as many patients as possible under crippling time restraints, you never feel rushed, you are never just handed a prescription and sent on your way and you are listened to. Any time I have attended I have felt understood and respected and felt better! I hope you don't need a doctor, but if you do these guys have it all in healthy spades.

They are aweful, they mess up repeat prescriptions 25% of the time. U have to phone and be the…read morefirst or second caller in the morning to get an appointment, and it's near impossible to get through. If u go to open surgery prepare to sit for 3hrs surrounded by al sorts of other sicknesses and then you can only talk to the doctor about one thing, anything else and you will need to come back and wait another 3 hrs.

Very poor treatment of patients, especially those who have (*gasp*) jobs…read more For example, they have an answering machine, but turn it off when they're not available! So you can't call them during your lunch (or rather, their long lunches), or out of hours, or when they take a "day off for training", which seems to be extremely frequent. This is a real problem when you need to order medicine refills. Another problem is their "open surgery", which is all morning. The idea is that, instead of the surgery managing its time and booking patients' appointments smartly, patients should take a morning off work, arrive at 8:30 HOPING for an appointment, sit there all morning, and finally get seen. OR not get seen, and take another morning off work the next day. Maybe they need to do this, to SOME extent, but doing it ALL MORNING seems like it just gives up on proper management, shifts the burden onto patients, and wastes proper appointment slots. Another thing I don't like is that they pool their GPs, instead of allowing you to see a single doctor who can get to know you. And worse still, the secretaries are FAR too happy to make decisions on their own, about which doctor they'll let you see, or what treatment you're entitled too, or what you can do over the phone vs. seeing them in person, etc. This is all fine and dandy if you're sick once every 3 years, but for those of us who actually need the services of a GP on a semi-regular basis, it's a nightmare of incompetence and lack of consideration.

So, after a week of eating rich food and drinking beers I decided that it was time to take some…read moreaction. I was browsing online looking at various different gyms and I came across Grove Wellbeing Centre. I was intrigued as I had driven past this 'council style' leisure centre before and never given it much of a thought. But after looking online at their facilities I decided to bite the bullet and join up there and then. The cost for a monthly membership is £26 (no joining fee) but for this monthly amount you get access to the gym, swimming pool, classes and sauna and steam room facilities. I think this is a bargain! I had my first session today and I was really impressed with what the gym had to offer. There were around 15 cross trainers, 15 treadmills, 10 bikes and a few step machines and that's just the cardio area. The free weights section consists of a whole rack of weights from 5kg to 50kg, 2 squat racks, 3 benches for free weights and a few frames for bar bells. The gym was quite for a Saturday, I'm hoping it stays that way. But over all I was really impressed with everything on offer. The whole gym and centre was sparklingly clean and the few staff members I came in to contact with were excellent. All in all a great experience, really looking forward to sorting my life out in this gym!

Having finally closed down the decrepit and rotten building that originally house the Grove Leisure…read moreCentre, as well as putting an end to the ancient library round the corner, the powers that be decided to amalgamate the two and combine them as the Wellbeing Centre. A bit fluffy I know, but what else do you call a facility that has a swimming pool, gym, library, coffee shop, computer facilities, dentists, podiatry and so on and so on. It's got the lot this place, and its spanking new to boot - I just hope it stays that way, because if the previous leisure centre is anything to go by, it could end up a shadow of it's former self. As it is, the pool provides 25metres to swin in, aqua jets, a toddlers area and sauna as well as rooms for other sports and activities. Would recommend it if you live in or are visiting the North Belfast area.

This is a beautiful modern building and has the benefit of a little cafe and lots of comfy seating…read moreareas. However, it doesn't benefit from an appropriate amount of parking. Cars are often abandoned on double yellow lines and whilst it does have disabled spaces, I am yet to come across an empty one. The centre is usually always busy and it often takes a couple of weeks to a get a GP appointment, but then it seems everywhere does. The two things that make the greatest difference for me is the nurses station and the baby clinic. My hubby sliced his finger and fearing hours at a&e, we popped over to the nurses station, no appointment, no problem. He was in and out in 10 mins with bandages, ointment and aftercare advice. It was quick, efficient and easy, as it should be! The baby clinic runs on Thursday afternoons, it's also drop in, where after about a 10-15min wait you can see a Health Visitor and you don't even have to be registered there. Now if only they could sort out the parking...

I've had tennis elbow, from golf, and frozen shoulder from painting, for years and years. After…read moreseeing Gerrard shoulder much better and tennis elbow totally cured. Brilliant service and unexpected cure. I've always been told tennis elbow cannot be fixed. They need to see Gerrard, (sorry, don't know his surname).

I have heard of this store before and the infamous Jan de Vries. Unfortunately I've never met the…read moreman or had him operate on me but reports say he's a bit alternative and could be a genius. Though my only experience here was on my way back from a jog that went marginally wrong and involved me hobbling back rather than running as I had originally planned. I called in here to see what the nice people recommended as I had no painkillers or bandages in my house. I got some anti-inflammatory cream which worked a treat and dose of painkillers for good measure. I'm all for alternative medicine if it works. The cream, though helpful, was nearly £10 and for the one occasion I used it, I felt a bit stupid. It was the most expensive jog I've been on but my foot has never looked so good.

Having sinus trouble for most of my life, I finally bit the bullet and went to the Framar Health…read moreClinic, for a much sought-after appointment with Jan de Vries, the well known homeopathic and alternative health care expert. I left with two things. The first thing was a prescription for herbal tablets to improve my sinus condition (expensive and didn't work - not a happy bunny.) The second thing was a new, fixed 'unclicky' jaw bone. Sounds weird, but he seems to have some knowledge of how to manipulate bones if they are troubling you - I'm sure there is some medical name for it but I've no idea. All I know is before I went in, my jaw would click like mad when I was eating, and after I left, no more clicking! Now, it was kind of weird - I thought he was going to choke me, as the manoevure involved putting me in a headlock type position, but it really did work! Now, I imagine if I had been able to afford to repeat the prescription for the herbal tablets, they may have helped me - but it was too pricey for me to maintain each month. I do know many people whom Framar have helped considerably, though. And on the plus side, I can now eat my dinner without the sound of drums...

Recent proposals have seen A&E services at Whiteabbey Hospital being replaced with a minor injuries…read moreunit. A&E cases should now attend their most local hospital (for many this is Antrim, Royal or Mater) This change came about after long talks and consultations about how effective the A&E services where at this location, they have changed in a hope to modernise the services the hospital provides. At Whiteabbey there is now a range of services available including; Day Surgery Procedure Unit , Dietetics, Endoscopy Suite, Minor Injuries Unit, Occupational therapy, Outpatients, Psychiatric Day Hospital, Physiotherapy, Psychological therapies, Radiology and diagnostics department, Rehabilitation and Speech and language therapy services. These services are located in a number of buildings; the main hospital building and other smaller buildings such as The New Ward Block, Norah Bain House and Ward 8. Whiteabbey Hospital is open from 9.00am - 5.00pm, Monday-Friday, excluding bank holidays. There is a restaurant on the grounds called the Grapevine which serves a range of hot and cold food and snacks. It is open for breakfast from 8.30am -10.30am and for lunch from 12noon - 1.30pm. I used to work at the hospital and I have to note the food on offer here is actually really nice. The Hospital is about seven miles from Belfast. It's located on the Doagh Road in Newtownabbey and is accessible from the M2 motorway / Station Rd / Doagh Road and O'Neill Road.

I hadn't been in this hospital in years, since they closed down the A&E department, however in 2014…read moreI attended a number of times to see them midwife, and have various scans and treatments when I was pregnant. I was quite happy about this is this hospital isn't that far from me and it meant I wouldn't have to trek up and down to Belfast (or Antrim!) Most of the treatment I received here was good and the nurses friendly and informative, but there was a bit of a disaster with one of the injections I needed which saw me have to go back three times before I managed to get it, and for this I take off a star. I received a letter telling me when to go, and duly attended. The nurse looked at me blankly and asked why I was there. Luckily I had my letter with me to show her. She just said 'oh this is a mistake' and proceeded to tell me that they didn't know I was coming and didn't have the plasma to inject. I was a bit annoyed to have wasted the time off work, but these things happen. I was given a new time to come. Upon arrival at this appointment, I was told that they had the plasma now, however it was in a locked fridge and the person with the key wasn't there!

Local hospital for me, with an A and E unit (even though it does close at 11pm due to number of…read moredrunken accidents thay used to have to deal with)

Terrible appointment system, you call, join a queue and then get told there are no more appointment…read moreavailable for that day. Maybe book online, this has not been working from 2014 according to the message. They give assurances that under this new style appointment system a patient would be able to access an appointment the same day, no they cannot and do not have an option to book the next available appointment. Even the emergency appointment number is policed by an unqualified medical person who is Making medical decisions if the patient is sick enough to be put through to a doctor. They are putting patients at risk in this practice and unworkable system. If they are so busy, why are they advertising for more patients on their website?