Is it the weekend again already? Where does the time go? It feels like time is rushing by and we don’t notice much of it as we are too immersed in all the tasks that need to be done. But it is Saturday which means it’s time for another look at the comments our patients have left for us this week. As always, the practice manager only can find time to do this during her free time on a Saturday. Now, without further ado, let’s have a look at the comments left. It’s time to find out what lessons we can learn.
First, the Friends and Family Test results:
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?
Dr Sam is a very good dioctor and someone I can feel comfortable with and didn’t rush you away.
Do you think the practice has improved in the last 12 months?
Depends who you have
What are we doing particularly well?
Got some lovely nurses
What do you feel we can improve on and how?
Appointments: you should be able to see who you feel comfortable with
We agree that in an ideal world, you should see someone you feel comfortable with. However, we believe it is more important you are seen when there is a medical need to be seen than it is to see the person of your choice. It isn’t wise to delay medical attention until the person you prefer is available in most cases.
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?
Very good service
Do you think the practice has improved in the last 12 months?
Yes, but I think certain problems don’t need an appointment and could be done over the phone, as I was in the room for not even 2 minutes yesterday and all I needed was a prescription and I feel that a 15 minute appointment was wasted that someone else could of had
What are we doing particularly well?
Everything
What do you feel we can improve on and how?
Realising what can be done without giving appointments
This patient is correct. Not all problems require an appointment. However, some of the things a patient feels could be dealt with over the phone may need the GP to have a visual examination of the patient while others where the patient feels it needs a face-to-face appointment might be suitable for a telephone appointment instead. Our assessment of need system hopes to filter out which patients need to see a GP, who will benefit from a telephone appointment, and who would be suitable to see a pharmacist, physiotherapist, optician, or any other service. We don’t know the exact circumstances for the appointment this patient had. However, even telephone appointments take a 10 or 15-minute slot. They are treated in the same way as face-to-face appointments in that respect.
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?
Been with this practice from the start. Received years of care and treatment when needed.
Do you think the practice has improved in the last 12 months?
I think covid hasn’t helped the practice. Actually appointments to see a GP has become harder for every NHS establishment.
What are we doing particularly well?
Opportunity to see a nurse is quite good. I am happy to be seen your brilliant staff.
What do you feel we can improve on and how?
To be able to recruit sufficient GPS which I understand is a national issue.
Recruiting ‘sufficient’ GPs is a difficult issue as this patient mentions which indeed is a national problem. A lot of the current GPs are nearing retirement age, too. There are 3 main problems with recruiting more GPs. The first is a lack of GPs, although we hear that there might be some more available than previously. The second problem is the lack of space to house these extra GPs as we are currently already ‘hot-seating’. And the third problem is the lack of funding. The funding of GP practices has gone down year on year with funds taken from practices and put into the Primary Care Networks instead. Funding that is used for the additional roles (such as physician associates, care coordinators, health and wellbeing coaches, social prescribers, first contact physios) and other services. The increase in minimum wages has also had an impact and some GP practices nationally have gone under financially and ceased to exist. We are in the fortunate circumstances that we have recruited an additional salaried GP, who will start working in April this year. This will hopefully increase our capacity somewhat and reduce the pressure that currently rests on the GP partners.
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?
Everyone in the practice is lovely.
Do you think the practice has improved in the last 12 months?
Yes. I like the call queuing system and triage.
What are we doing particularly well?
Happy with everything
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?
Efficient, friendly and professional.
Do you think the practice has improved in the last 12 months?
Same
What are we doing particularly well?
Quick response and appointment available within days.
What do you feel we can improve on and how?
Telephone response can be slow and difficult but I assume that is because of the number of patients requiring advice is quite high.
And now it’s time to look at the comments on our Patient Satisfaction Survey.
Whenever I or my kids need appointment or advice we’re dealt with accordingly and professionally.
All I ask from Cudworth surgery is Anser thexxxxxxphone! When I got to see the nurse she was a 1 excellent thanks.
The age-old phone issue rears its ugly head again. Despite patients telling us we don’t answer the phone, we do. Constantly. However, if in one hour 4600 calls try to get through, you can see why it isn’t always possible to answer all the calls immediately. We are looking into a different phone system and have in the last week signed a contract with a different provider. The implementation of the new system will take some time, though and it may not be until April before the system is in place. We are looking forward to the improvements the new system will hopefully bring for both our patients and the practice.
Docs organised appointment, nurse first class but something needs to be done about getting appointments when really needed instead of listening to someone initially speaking. Waste of telephone time listening g to initial message when at the end of it you can’t speak to anyone ! Come on Grimethorpe surgery you can and have done far better !!!!
We are preparing for a new telephone system. Changing the phone messages in the current system is a massive undertaking and not really worth our time as we will hopefully have a new system in place soon. The message given at the beginning is important. It could be shorter, and in our opinion, could be spread over the messages played in the queue. The current system does however limit us to a maximum of 3 different messages played in the queue.
I’m very pleased with the service l received
Wonderful, lovely and kind nurse. Took the time to listen to me. Like talking to a friend. Brilliant experience
Very professional.
Dr. ALI was excellent in all ways.
Wonderful nurse
The nurse was wonderful. Helpful and kind with lots of information.
Great practice, Thankyou very much.
It would be much appreciated if it could be made easier to contact the surgery with a view to getting an Appointment Difficult to get an answer…then lots of technical jargon. Very upsetting when one is not well!!
We hope the new telephone system will help to make it easier to contact the surgery. It’s exactly why we want a different system. We are unsure what technical jargon this patient means, but if we are using this, we would like to know which terms we use are classed as technical jargon so we can improve on this.
We have such a fantastic practice, Thankyou.
Tariro Jera was a very nice lady,
I would prefer to see an actual gp. I lacked confidence when she did not know what to prescribe and had to ask another doctor.
We suspect this patient saw our Physician Associate. Although they have been trained to do much of the same work as a GP, they are not doctors and cannot prescribe. They work under the supervision of the GPs and are sensible enough to ask for advice from a GP when they are uncertain. In those circumstances patients get a two-for-one, getting both the opinion of the Physician Associate and a GP.
I am ok with grimethorpe surgery the are doing well.
I find it very frustrating and hard to get appointment with my GP.
I would not have had to go to A and E if l had got appointment with my doctor.
Which would not have caused me taking time up at hospital, which could have been easier for people that do. And less stress on hospital, when my own GP could have resolved
There can only be one or two reasons a patient needs to go to A&E rather than seeing the GP. The first is when the problem should receive attention at A&E and is outside the scope of the GP. The other is when the capacity for appointments at the surgery is reached and the patient is signposted to i-Heart, a walk-in centre, an urgent care centre, or decides that A&E is the best option to take. When we have the capacity to see our patients, we will, but our capacity has limits.
The nurse was fantastic and offered to use a small speculum. Just because you look larger on the outside doesn’t mean your insides are! Kudos to the nurse who knows her stuff and goes against “the norm”
We would actually hope this is not against the norm, but the norm. Every patient is different and should be treated as an individual. Not as a pre-conceived idea.
And that concludes the list of comments left this week. There are again a lot of lovely comments left by our patients and they lift our spirits. There are a few criticisms accompanied by good ideas and those are helpful. We are grateful to our patients for taking the time to fill in the survey. As you can see, we read them all and take your comments into consideration to help improve our services. We are excited about the new phone system that will be put in place in the next few months and are hopeful this will improve the access to the practice via the telephone significantly. Like our patients, we don’t feel it is acceptable that you can’t get through, that you are cut off, that the system fails, or that you have to redial or wait in a queue for an indefinite time. We’ve got everything crossed that the new system is as good as it promises. Our patients deserve better access and our practice deserves it too.
