Another week has gone by and we are already close to the middle of November. We’re unsure where the time has gone.
Let’s check the comments left on our Patient Satisfaction Survey and the Friends and Family Test again. As always, we read all your comments and hope to learn lessons from these and gain a chance to improve our services further where we can. Don’t worry, the practice manager doesn’t take time out from her working week to collate the comments. This is left to the weekend when it’s her free time instead.
How likely are you to recommend our GP practice to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?
Extremely likely
Can you tell us why you gave that response?
I’ve been with this surgery for over 40 years. These doctors have cared for my family for a lot more than that. The best care is always given
Do you think the practice has improved in the last 12 months?
I would say it has and it hasn’t. The appointment system is difficult to navigate and some patients may struggle to explain what’s wrong to the receptionist, therefor making it difficult to triage. I believe triage from a telephone call isn’t effective to asses someone’s needs
What are we doing particularly well?
Jackie Spencer is amazing. She is so understanding, full of empathy and never gives up until the problem is sorted. She goes above and beyond
A satisfied customer. We’re happy to read this and agree Jackie is a great asset to our practice. There is a bit of a misunderstanding with our appointment system here. Not surprising if our receptionists don’t fully understand it and call it triage, too.
Our system doesn’t use triage, but an assessment of need. The patient shares their problem and concerns with the receptionist, who will signpost to the most suitable service for this patient, and where this is the GP surgery writes this down in the patient’s record. The patient is then placed on the assessment of need list.
The triaging clinician (either Dr. Maters, Dr. Sakellaropoulos, Jackie Spencer (ANP), or Tariro Jera (PA)) assesses the information given and decides the best course of action. There are not enough appointments available to give everyone who requests one an appointment at the surgery. Nor is that always the best option for the patient. Certain problems are best dealt with at the surgery, whereas others may be better suited to be seen at a different service (first contact physio, pharmacy, optician, dentist, urgent care centre, A&E).
Another thing to understand is that signposting to i-Heart is not a patient being ‘fobbed off’. Rather than just an out-of-hours service, i-Heart is so much more than just that. It is an extension of primary care (the practice) and provides extra capacity for appointments. This may not be as the patient would prefer at the surgery but at a different location. Often at the Priory Campus nowadays. So, if a patient is advised to go to i-Heart, that means our capacity is full, but we are using them as an extension of our own service.
How likely are you to recommend our GP practice to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?
Neither likely nor unlikely
Can you tell us why you gave that response?
No
Do you think the practice has improved in the last 12 months?
No the triage system is rubbish
What do you feel we can improve on and how?
Get rid of the triage and give patients an appointment when needed
We will agree to disagree here. We don’t believe the current appointment system is rubbish. We also believe patients who need an appointment are more likely to get one with the current system than previously. In the past, anyone who got through to book an appointment before they had all gone, would be seen. No matter if this was an appropriate problem for the GP practice or not. Dental problems would arrive through the door and go out without treatment as GPs can’t treat dental problems. This now no longer happens and patients are signposted to the appropriate service instead, avoiding wasted appointments for both doctor and patient. We suspect there is a mismatch between what the clinicians and the patient considered to be a needed appointment.
How likely are you to recommend our GP practice to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?
Likely
Can you tell us why you gave that response?
It’s a fantastic surgery. All staff I encounter (main Reception and Doctors) are really helpful, I just wish I could get an appointment quicker as I had to wait 6 days (4 working days) for an appointment when I was in pain. Once I got the appointment everything was perfect.
Do you think the practice has improved in the last 12 months?
Hard to say as I don’t often need to visit the GP (usually only once a year for routine bloods)
What are we doing particularly well?
When speaking on the phone or in person the customer service is excellent.
What do you feel we can improve on and how?
Just the waiting time on getting an appointment. On the phone I was told ‘hopefully today, if not tomorrow’ the link I got was for the following week!
This is a mixed response. Happy with the surgery in general, but other than that not happy with the waiting time for an appointment. We are a little surprised by the patient’s remark on the statement from the receptionist and can only assume this was about hearing back from the surgery rather than relating to the appointment. We try to get a response back the same day, but if it is excessively busy that response will be the next day. The response in this case was the link to book an appointment which likely was sent to the patient the same day. We may need to look at how we word things to patients to not cause a misunderstanding.
How likely are you to recommend our GP practice to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?
Likely
Can you tell us why you gave that response?
I got an appointment fairly quick
Do you think the practice has improved in the last 12 months?
Yes and no
What do you feel we can improve on and how?
Time waiting on the phone
The problem with the waiting times on the phones keeps popping up. It remains a problem and one that isn’t easily solved. However, we are looking at a change to our system, an add on, and hope to hear from the supplier soon if this is possible.
Highly satisfied with my needs.
I used the NHS app to get advice from my GP I then received a text asking me to make an appointment .This is a very satisfactory way of doing things as my GP can triage my symptoms and decide whether my issue is urgent or non urgent.
We have a little concern about this route. Especially when the workload is excessive (as is not uncommon), we don’t always get a chance to see medical requests via online consultations immediately, or even the same day. We don’t consider this route suitable for urgent problems (like chest infections, feeling very unwell, etc). If your problem is urgent, please contact us by phone, or contact NHS 111 instead. That gives a faster route to medical support. If your problem is not urgent, then the online consultations are a great way to avoid the long wait on the phones.
The practice manager has even come across some urgent medical requests entered to the online consultations during weekends. WE ONLY CHECK DURING WORKING HOURS. Otherwise the system is unmanned. Please don’t wait for our response if you start to feel worse but contact NHS 111 in those circumstances instead.
Could not fault service
It would be better to be able to personally go to the Doctors to arrange an appointment as well as other methods.
We are afraid we have to disagree with this statement. Although we understand what the patient means, we have serious concerns about this route. We want to protect your privacy and confidentiality. Allowing patients to come to reception to request an appointment and having to share their details over the front desk goes completely against this. Anyone who is in the waiting area (or enters it while you are talking) can overhear what is being said. We don’t believe this is acceptable and therefore don’t allow people to use this route to protect confidentiality.
This practice as always been very good to me. Everyone treats you with respect thank you for that.
Still having problems after going through phone message to actually get some one to pickup
Unfortunately, the phone lines are always very busy and the receptionists can be on a call for a significant time. They answer the phone again as soon as they have ended the call. We apologise for the long waits and are looking at the possibility of an add on to make this better for our patients. We are waiting to hear back from our supplier on this.
I haven’t any concerns at this moment in time
Highly satisfied with my needs.
Lucy very professional and job well done
Not being that pessimistic to the level of care, I mainly have a good experience at this surgery. I dare say I am not the only one. But when you have seen a doctor regarding a condition and told to get back to them if the condition as not responding as well as I expected. Then to wait for a phone response that took an 1:45, only asking either to seek advice a doctor. Then to be put through the tirage system to getting a message to contact
Ihart, which was unresponsive. Then trying the doctors the next day (unsuccessfully). To eventually get a appointment the day after that, loosing 4/5days where the condition was not being treated.
Thus unnecessary discomfort.
We are sorry to hear this patient didn’t get a quicker response. Again, we need to and have spoken to our receptionists as we don’t operate a triage system, but an assessment of need system. Unfortunately, our capacity is limited and this means we will need to signpost to i-Heart when our capacity is full. i-Heart then provide the extension to our capacity. Over the last few weeks, it appears patients have experienced problems in getting through to i-Heart too. We can only think that this is related to the season of colds and coughs being upon us again. Demand for appointments is always increased in the October-April months. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Very helpful and caring team
I had an appt on Monday 6th Nov @ 16.10 with Dr Sam at cudworth. When I arrived I was told someone should have rang me to cancel this appt as Dr Sam had called in sick. I was told when she returns someone would contact me regarding an appt. I need a follow up appt with Dr Sam.
We apologise this went wrong. Dr Sam was off sick on Monday 6 November and we had to cancel all her appointments. We sent a message to all patients whom we could by text to cancel their appointments and to rearrange those we could. It looks like we failed to get in touch with this patient (failed text message, no answer), and are sorry the patient turned up at the surgery unnecessarily. We hope the follow-up appointment was arranged as planned.
Our conclusion of this week’s comments is that we still have things where we can improve: ensuring all patients are contacted about cancelled appointments, and improving the phone system if we can.
Other things are not as easy: create more appointments, and offer access to the assessment of need system via the NHS App or online consultations. The reason for this is that we simply don’t have the capacity. Our rooms are at full capacity, which means we are at full capacity for clinical staff (doctors, ANP, PA, nurses, nursing associates, healthcare assistants) too. We could only increase our capacity if we could increase both of these factors. However, be assured of one thing: we won’t stop looking for ways to improve our service and we are currently reviewing our assessment of need system in the hope we can make this better than it currently is while also reducing the excessive workload and stress it causes the clinicians involved with the system.
