Patient Survey Results

Goyt Valley Medical & Dental Practice

Patient Report 2013/2014

An introduction to our practice and our Patient Reference Group (PRG)

Our practice Patient Participation Group (PPG) is open to anyone who wishes to join. Members can choose to participate via e-mail, by attending meetings at the practice or by a combination of both methods. Current membership numbers 15
It is hoped that over time the profile of the group will closely match the profile of the practice population.
Meetings are held in the early evening to try and make it accessible for both those who work and for the older members.

Establishing the Patient Representative Group

This shows how the practice has tried to ensure that the PRG is representative of the wider practice population. Information is provided here on the practice and PRG profile.

These are the reasons for any differences between the above PRG and Practice profiles:

The main variance is in the age and ethnicity areas. We were encouraged by the presence of a patient in the under 18 years age bracket. We hope that over the coming months our group can grow and develop, using their links to encourage other patients to attend, and demonstrating that an active PPG can achieve positive change. We also hope that the option of patients participating through a combination of attending face-to-face meetings and virtual meetings will also open up the group to more of the younger age brackets.

In addition to the above demographic factors this is how the practice has also taken account of other social factors such as working patterns of patients, levels of unemployment in the area, the number of carers:

As stated previously we have arranged the meetings in the early evening to try and ensure that it is late enough to allow those who work to attend, but not too late to potentially discouraging those who don’t like to go out too late in the day.

This is what we have tried to do to reach groups that are under-represented:

We continue to individually encourage patients from under-represented groups to attend.

Setting the priorities for the annual patient survey

The survey has traditionally been discussed at PRG meetings. Agreed areas of concern around availability of appointments, contacting the practice, advance and on-line booking and satisfaction with care have been included.

Designing and undertaking the patient survey

A draft survey was drawn up and circulated to all members of the PRG for the opportunity to comment and to request either the removal or addition of questions. The survey focussed on the key concerns for the practice and PRG.
A finalised survey was then drawn up.

How our patient survey was undertaken:

All patients attending the surgery were handed a copy of the survey and asked to complete it during a chosen 2 week period. A box was placed at reception for the anonymous returning of surveys.

Summary of our patient survey results:

Overall Experience

With regard to the overall experience that patients receive at Goyt Valley Medical Practice, the results were very positive with 98.5% regarding this as; Good, Very good or Excellent.

Areas for consideration

The survey included a section where patients could make additional comments. The majority of the negative comments were regarding the appointment system, with a mixture saying that they can’t get appointment when they ring on the day and others wanting more appointments available to book in advance. Other negative comments received were with regards to the telephone system.

Analysis of the patient survey and discussion of survey results with the PRG

How the practice analysed the patient survey results and how these results were discussed with the PRG:

Results to specific questions were compiled to give overall percentages. Individual comments were collated to form themes.
The full results were discussed at our March PRG meeting which was also attended by one of the GP partners. The key improvement areas which we agreed with the PRG for inclusion in our action plan were:

1. Concern from patients around use of 08 number, although the practice does not make any financial advantage from this.
(post survey noted – the practice has changed phone supplier and is going through a phased process of changing its’ number to a local number)

2. Raising concerns on the ability to get through by phone – we will re-evaluate the staffing levels at reception

3. Need for later pre-bookable appointments – we will investigate how later appointments can be made available for pre-bookable slots

4. Evaluate whether more pre-bookable appointments can be made available

5. Discuss with CCG regarding local pharmacy provision

6. Review the telephone system recorded message to see how it can be reduced
We agreed/disagreed about:

The practice and PRG were able to agree about all of these points.

ACTION PLAN

We identified that there were the following contractual considerations to the agreed actions:

In terms of pre-bookable appointments the practice has to strike a balance between making these available but also ensuring that sufficient capacity was available for on-the-day requests. We also discussed that the opening hours of local pharmacies were not within our control but that we would raise this with the CCG.

Copy of agreed action plan is as follows:

1) Changing practice number from an 08 number Practice to move to a new supplier and introduce a geographical number by mid March 2014
Responsible person: Practice Manager
Timescales: Process already underway, new number up and running, publicity campaign continuing
2) Reception staffing levels due to a number of retirements New staff to be recruited and trained up, ensuring quality service continues
Responsible person: Practice Manager
Timescales: 2 months
3) Increase in pre-bookable appointments
These have been increased over the last year, but the practice will carry out another review to measure on-the-day demand against pre-bookable demand to see if further adjustments can be made
Responsible person: Practice Manager and reception team
Timescales: 4 months
4) Telephone queuing system The practice will review the message that is heard when a patient phones, and will take out any information that is not needed. Responsible person: IT administrator
Timescales: 2 months

5)Being seen by GP on the day To investigate this further, at present all patients requiring an on-the-day appointment are either offered one immediately with a GP or Nurse Practitioner or are triaged. If after triage they need to be seen on the day they are offered an appointment either with a GP or Nurse Practitioner. We need to understand if the response to this question is due to patients not been triaged as urgent, or patients being seen by a Nurse Practitioner not a GP
Responsible Person: Practice Manager and GP Partners
Timescales: 4 months

Review of previous year’s actions and achievement

We have summarised below the actions that were agreed following the patient survey 2012/13 and whether these were successfully completed or are still on-going and (if appropriate) how any have fed into the current year’s survey and action plan:

1.To increase the number of female GP appointments that are available

. We have appointed an additional female GP working 2 days per week, in addition both or our Nurse Practitioners are female. We will continue to monitor and review demand for appointments with female clinicians.

2.To ensure that in the event that a clinician is running more than 15 minutes late that any patients waiting are informed of the wait.

We have initiated a protocol where clinicians are asked to inform the reception team if they are running late so that patients can be informed. Receptionists also keep an eye on running times and take action when needed. We have again monitored waiting times in this years survey.

3.To review the number of appointments available to book on the day versus book in advance and look at a trial of making some later appointments available for commuters

. We have increased the number or pre-bookable appointments for all GPs to try and increase choice for patients. We have also changed the timeslots available for pre-bookable appointments to make more available towards the end of the day. We will continue to monitor this over the next year. Again we have fed availability and preference for pre-booking and on the day booking into this years survey.

4.To look at making some GP appointments available to book online.

We initially released our extended hours appointments for online booking, and subsequently added some “in hours” appointments, whilst carefully monitoring to ensure that patients who do not access online booking are not disadvantage, in recognition of our PPGs concerns. Again we have included booking preferences in this years survey.

5.To see if the above action has an impact of the demand on the telephones.

We have been monitoring demand on phones, however with overall increasing demand it is hard to do “like for like” comparisons. We will however continue to monitor call statistics and adjust reception hours to continually try to improve results.

6.Where there were any disagreements between the practice and the PRG on changes implemented or not implemented from last year’s action plan these are detailed below:

There were no disagreements

Publication of this report and our opening hours

This is how this report and our practice opening hours have been advertised and circulated:

The report is posted on our website, and hard copies will be available in reception.
Our opening hours are displayed on our website and at the entrance to our surgeries and on NHS choices.