Patient Participation Group Survey

1. Patient Participation Group Survey Findings – January 2012

2. Overview • Respondents • Access to the practice • Repeat prescription service • Test results • Practice staff • Overall satisfaction • Comments for improvement • Concerns about changes to the NHS

3. Respondents • We have collected 308 questionnaires, which represents 4 % of patient population. • Majority of questionnaires filled in on paper in the surgery. • Questions asked were on the recommendation of our Patient Participation Group • 50% attended practice for more than 10 years • Majority of respondents (72%) were female • Good representation across age groups (see graphs on next slides)

4. Respondents Been patients at the practice for... At their last visit saw...

5. Respondents Age of respondents Gender of respondents

6. Access to care

7. Access to care • Phone booking system • Availability of appointments • Seeing the doctor of your choice Areas for improvement

8. Access to care • Areas for improvement - comments • Phone booking system • Too costly, especially with long waiting times, difficult to get through. • 8.30am very inconvenient to call due to school runs, travel to work, etc. – could phone lines open earlier. • Difficulty getting through at lunch time. • Availability of appointments • Very hard to book appointments in advance, even when regular appointments are required. • Appointment times same day versus in a month time – too extreme. • Not enough appointments available. • Make more appointments bookable online. • Seeing the doctor of your choice • Difficult to achieve continuity, seeing a family doctor. • Very hard to see ‘regular’ doctor at short notice.

9. Most mentioned words in Comment section: The size of the words below reflects how often these most mentioned words have come up in the comments section – appointments and access to the practice are the most commented on area with the phone system being mentioned by many patients.

10. Access to care • Reception waiting time/ check-in screen • Check-in screen mentioned in comments as great improvement • Telephone advice service • Mentioned in a number of comments as improving access to doctors and nurses • Could be improved by offering non-emergency advice as well • Opportunity to ‘book’ telephone advice would be appreciated Areas with highest levels of satisfaction

11. repeat prescriptions • The repeat prescription service has a large number of n/a answers – as expected. • The paper questionnaire did not feature the option to comment on the prescription line and online service – however both were mentioned in the comments. • Overall satisfaction with the prescription service was high. • Areas for improvement were identified to be: • More flexibility for the repeat prescription phone line, i.e. longer, at different times. • New online service not as good as old one, should allow to reset/resend password, inform when prescription is ready.

12. test results • The test results section has a large number of n/a answers – as expected. • Of the remaining responses the vast majority of ratings were positive. • The weakest area in that section was ‘Were you told when to contact us for your test results?’ While 61% of respondents, who this question was applicable to, were satisfied or very satisfied, minor improvements could be made.

13. Practice staff

14. Practice Staff • Overall feedback on practice staff has been very positive. • Clinical staff have been rated excellent and several doctors have been praised by name in the comment section. • Reception staff have been noted to be acting as ‘gate keepers’ and being abrupt at times.

15. Overall Satisfactionwith the Practice

16. comments • We had a total of 168 comments (more than half of the respondents) • Appointments, in particular the appointment booking system was commented on by 106 respondents – most of the comments in this section were negative. • Staff received primarily very positive feedback. • A few practical recommendation were made to improve the practice environment. • 52% of the comments were negative – however the question did specifically ask for areas of improvement – therefore a high number of negative comments does not reflect the respondents overall satisfaction with the practice and 26% of the comments were praise for the practice and staff.

17. Thank You to everyone who took part and for the nice things you had to say about us! ‘...As a family we have been taking into account where we should move house to that would still enable us to remain a patient at this practice.’ ‘I really like the online appointment booking scheme and the monitor to say you have arrived. Very happy with the service and staff. Nice nurse for travel vaccines.’ ‘I really value this practice I think it is truly excellent, all of the staff are hugely friendly, compassionate, polite and helpful. I am always telling my friends how wonderful it is. Well done, you deserve an award.’

18. The Next Steps • Thank you to everyone who suggested improvements for the practice. We will be working with our patient participation group (PPG) to see what action plan we and they feel is achievable based on your comments. We will look at the following areas as a priority, based on your feedback: • The appointment system, including the phone and online booking system. • Improvements to the practice environment. • Looking at the repeat prescription service, including the phone and online availability. • Communications. • The full action plan once agreed with the PPG will be posted on our website/blog by 31st March 2012. If you are interested in joining our PPG pleas email katecarr@nhs.net for full details.

19. Thank you • We would like to assure you that your feedback is listen to and we will endeavour to make the improvements requested. • Where it is not possible to amend the service, we will make sure you know why and what alternative we might be able to offer. • We will develop a full and itemized action plan, working closely with the Patient Participation Group and will publish on our web site by the end of March. • We are always looking for patient feedback so please if you are interested in joining our Patient Participation Group please email katecarr@nhs.net we really value your support and input.

20. Notes • Where appropriate ‘n/a’ answers were not included in the charts/ graphs to better reflect the actual satisfaction levels. • Questions with a high level of ‘n/a’ responses included the repeat prescription and test result sections, which was to be expected as not every patient will need these services.