- practice to liaise with local chemists to ensure that patients’ are able to order and collect their prescriptions from their local chemist Waiting times A lot of patients perceive their waiting time as beginning from when they arrive at the surgery, however in house it would be perceived from the time of the appointment. 38% of patients report waiting between 10-20 mins after appointment time and 25% between 20-30 minutes of their appointment time. 30% of patients’ feel they wait a bit too long and 12% feel they wait far too long. The PPG asked whether it would be feasible for patients to receive a text or email to inform them if their appointment will be delayed and by how much. Action: - practice to consider waiting times and look at how these could be reduced - practice to look into whether it would be possible to provide real time updates by text or email if a Doctor was running late 6. Subsequent action to be taken by practice What was agreed What we have done What the outcome was 1. New building To take suggested improvements to interior design forward to architects for consideration Priority for 2014-15 Status: Complete There have been meetings between the architects and the practice to consider the design plans for the new building. All PPG comments passed on. There have been alterations to the original design plans to ensure that reception is as confidential as possible, that the building is as light as possible and that disabled access is optimised, as suggested by the PPG. Floor plan now signed off. 2. Online access to investigate why 7% of patients are registered for online access, it was felt that we should increase the number of online appointments for acute access and to Practice meet with patient representatives to see if there were any barriers for online access. We are currently looking at trialling and increase in the number of online appointments available for acute and chronic problems. For chronic problems the plan The meeting went well with patient representatives, barriers were identified including how well online access was publicised and difficulties registering for the service for people who are not computer literate. In the next mass mail out, a separate document with clear step by step instructions about how to register including details about how to access help pages from EMIS.
consider their use in long term conditions. Priority for 2014-15 Status: Partially complete would be for this to coincide with our new recall system for managing long term conditions. More appointments are going to be available for online booking over next 3 months to incentivise use and once chronic disease management system in place, online booking is going to be considered for certain conditions. Plan to set target of doubling number registered for online access over next year. 3. Appointments it was agreed that we need to consider the balance between appointments available on the day versus pre-bookable appointments as 67% of patients reported they did not mind being seen by any Dr but preferred being seen within 48hrs. It was also agreed that 31% of patients’ are happy to consult by phone and should we increase the amount of telephone appointments. Priority for 2014-15 Status: Ongoing This was discussed at the March 2014 partnership meeting, it was agreed that the balance between on the day appointments 1/3 vs pre-bookable 2/3 needs In the meeting the idea of using some form of front end triage to categorise problems was discussed. The use of telephone consulting was also discussed and it was felt that the current system which uses 5 minute slots was too short. This was discussed agreed plan of trialling replacing 3 face to face with 4 x 7.5min telephone consultations for reviews, the net effect of this will be to increase routine (as opposed to special slots such as minor surgery) appointments by 6%. Balance between pre-bookable vs on the day will be evaluated after of increase in telephone appointments. 4. Waiting times It was agreed that the practice needs to consider ways to ensure Doctors run better to time. Priority for 2014-15 Status: Ongoing As part of the bid for the new building an analysis of Doctors consulting times has taken place. The average consulting time is currently 14 minutes, however the current consultation slot is only 10 minutes. It was agreed at the March 2014 partnership meeting that we We have audited our waiting times over the last year. Found that the average delay was 11 minutes. We are have set a target to increase proportion of patients waiting less than 10 minutes from their appt time from 51% to 75% and reduce the average delay to less than 10 minutes. We are going to give individual clinicians their own figures – this may involve a mixture of strategies
Haven’t tried 41 19% Very easy 23 11% Fairly easy 39 18% Not very easy 52 25% Not at all easy 50 24% Don't know 6 3% Getting an appointment with the or health care assistant [Q8. In the past 6 months how easy have you found the following?] Haven’t tried 50 24% Very easy 32 15% Fairly easy 69 33% Not very easy 27 13% Not at all easy 14 7% Don't know 17 8% Q9. If you able to be seen during the next 2 weekdays that the GP or Health Centre was open, why was that? (select one option) There weren’t any appointments 121 78% Times offered didn’t suit 4 3% Appointment was with a doctor who I didn’t want to see 13 8%
I prefer to be seen by any doctor within 48 hours 145 67% I am happy to wait between 2-4 weeks to be seen by my preferred doctor 71 33% Part 3 – Prescriptions Q13. What method do you most commonly use to request an acute or repeat prescription? (select one option) In person, handing in the right side of my prescription 67 30% Calling the prescription line 99 45% Online 14 6% Doesn’t apply 42 19% Q14. Where do you normally collect your prescription? (select one option) At the surgery 99 45% At my local pharmacy 98 44%
Very poor 4 2% apply 2 1% Asking your symptoms [Q17. The last time you saw a Doctor at the surgery how good was the Doctor at each of the following?] Very good 121 56% Good 76 35% Neither good nor poor 8 4% Poor 4 2% Very poor 3 1% Doesn't apply 3 1% Listening [Q17. The last time you saw a Doctor at the surgery how good was the Doctor at each of the following?] Very good 122 57% Good 71 33% Neither good nor poor 12 6% Poor 5 2% Very poor 1 0% Doesn't apply 2 1% Explaining tests and treatments [Q17. The last time you saw a Doctor at the surgery how good was the Doctor at each of the following?] Very good 111 53%