Can you believe we are in the last few days of 2023 already? Where has the time gone?
This year has seen many changes in how we work, many challenges (phone failures for instance), and the steady presence of our Patient Satisfaction Survey to try and improve our services where we can.
We welcomed new team members (Ellie, our new nursing associate) and said goodbye to long-term friends (Dr Bell retired yesterday).
We look forward to 2024 with the hope of further changes to improve our services. We are exploring different phone systems to hopefully improve phone access for our patients, we look forward to a new salaried doctor hopefully joining us in March, and we are trying to find ways to improve our assessment of needs pathway further.
The comments our patients leave on our Patient Satisfaction Survey and our Friends and Family Test are important to help us find improvements and focus our attention on the area that matters most to our patients.
After all, we are all in this together. It’s a partnership between the practice and the patients where we work together to look after the health of the patients. A large portion of the responsibility for your health lies with you as the patient, the medical profession can only support you in this task.
Here’s to another year of working together to achieve the goals we wish to achieve. We wish all our patients and their loved ones a very happy and healthy 2024!
And now it’s time to look at the comments our patients have left for us this week.
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?
Good and professional
What are we doing particularly well?
Referred me straight away
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?
Good doctors
Do you think the practice has improved in the last 12 months?
No
What are we doing particularly well?
Listening
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?
Good doctors
Do you think the practice has improved in the last 12 months?
Little bit
What are we doing particularly well?
Patience
What do you feel we can improve on and how?
The music when im on hold
When we find a better phone system we also hope to have a better choice of music available.
I saw the nurse for a smear what a lovely nurse she was gave me alot of time to discuss other things aswell. Credit to the practice she is.
First class service thanks
Q7. Wasnt sure how to answer, I had no need for an alternative, the initial offered appointment choices met my needs very well. I have newly registered and am very happy all around so far thank you
(Q7. How frequently are you offered an appointment alternative to a GP by the reception team?)
Ellie the nurse was superb
Why was I given this appointment?? What was is about if you sent it to me I did not request it I am puzzled??
I was contacted by GP that I had an apparent on 28/12/2023 @9.15 am I attended was told it was a nurse I would be seeing, but she had no knowledge who had made the appointment neither did I it was a text message. Why was I given this totally puzzled??
This comment is presenting us with a puzzle. A puzzle we intend to solve when we return to work in the new year.
Cannot improve the appointment I had with Gemma very good nurse treats me with respect
I was satisfied with my appointment with the nurse thankyou.
Only issue is the phone que I was number 1 for 40 minutes , I understand this is not your fault however luckily I was at home and able to wait on the line had I been at work this would have been impossible .
I got an appointment in the end so all was good thanks
The phone system is definitely the main problem for the surgery. We agree it is not acceptable to have to wait in the queue for such a long time. Although this is not within our power to change at present, we are exploring different phone systems in the hope to find one that is more user friendly for both patients and the practice.
An appointment was made for a blood test layer the same day.
I attended on time but the nurse had no info why the test was required and could only offer me a new appt for next week. I will now need to cancal work to attend
Another patient with a similar problem. Another one we will try to solve in the new year.
The nurse that attend me was exceptionally helpful and very kind. Both me and my son saw her on the same day and we were given all attention that we needed. Unfortunately I didn’t ask her name.
Not as many comments left this week as usually, but the period between Christmas and New Year is often a little quieter as people visit relatives a little further afield. What did we learn this week, though?
- Most people are happy with our services
- Our phone system can do with improvement (something we are looking into)
- There have been a few communication problems relating to nurse appointments/blood tests this week
We will continue to look into improvements for our services in the new year and my focus as practice manager next year/week will be:
- To look into phone systems available to find one that is more user friendly (for patients and the practice)
- To solve the mystery of the miscommunications mentioned earlier (I will report back to the patients who left these comments). Once we find out what the issue was, we will look at improving the process to ensure these miscommunications are avoided where possible
All that is left now is to wish you all a very Happy and Healthy 2024! May all your wishes come true.
