Patient Comments
We received a number of comments in our recent anonymous patient survey. We wanted to go through some of these comments and explain the reason why things are the way they are, and what we’re doing to improve:-
Phone Lines
Doing Well:
“The new phone call-back system is really good.”
“Giving me appointment and answering the phone , something other local surgeries don’t seem able to master”
“Receptionist are all particular polite, professional and helpful on the phone and at the practice”
“Answering the phone well, with a shorter wait time.”
Improvements to Make:
“It took me 81 phone call to get through and when I did i couldn’t get tosee a doctor it’s getting that way that we don’t bother any more”
“Answer the phone sooner, or able to book on line”
“It’s obviously very difficult at the moment but it would be nice to get through quicker on the phone to the practice when necessary. ”
“Receptionist asks too many questions which I think is unnecessary. A wall of questions feels like you’re being interrogated. I’m poorly and want to see a doctor. I know you have to give a brief reason but sometimes it’s too many questions., like being vetted!”
Comments:
We’ve made a lot of changes to the way we answer our phones in the last 3 months – see here for more specific information. We hope this means that patients will have a more positive experience getting through to us, and the survey results show us things are starting to get better, but we want to continue to improve so more patients have a positive experience.
If you get the ‘line busy’ when you call us, please keep trying. We use a national supplier of cloud-based phone services, which has been heavily pushed by NHS England. What this basically means is there are a unlimited number of phone lines to reach us on (many of you will remember when the practice only had two, which made it incredibly difficult to get through). We’ve been notified by our provider that because of server issues at their end, sometimes at the busiest times you get the ‘line busy’ (engaged tone), this is because they deal with hundreds of practices nationally and the overwhelm at 8am is so severe that the system cannot deal with it. Unfortunately, this is completely outside of our control but we have assurances that the provider are working on providing extra server capacity for the busiest times.
Our reception team certainly don’t intend to ‘interrogate’ patients about what’s wrong – but it’s vitally important they get certain details about patient’s medical issues so that they can direct you to the right appointment, first time. If they didn’t do this, and just booked everyone in with a GP, demand for a GP appointment would triple, and frankly it’s difficult enough to be seen as it is. The reception team are trained by the GPs to ask certain questions, and to direct patients to the best possible service to help them.
Availability of Appointments
Doing Well:
“Like the online request for a clinical query. For non urgent things it works fairly well. Get an appointment within a few weeks.”
“Can make an appointment through the hotline and the waiting time is acceptable”
“Change of attitude in the staff. Much friendlier. I find the call back for appointments from being in the queue works, and we’re now able to get an appointment a lot easier and not being told ‘there’s no appointments for the foreseeable future.’ So the practice is definitely doing much better.”
“Appointments for babies – my son was seen promptly on both occasions and given excellent care. The receptionists, nurses and doctors were all extremely helpful.”
“Giving me appointment and answering the phone , something other local surgeries don’t seem able to master”
Improvements to Make:
“There is a definate lack of continuity in seeing practice Doctors,”
“Appointments to suit people who work and can’t come at 10 and 11am which seems to be all that’s offered and arrange cover to nurses when others are absent and extend the working hours of HCAs”
“It would be good if you could actually book appointments on the NHS app when you are trying to organise things like routine blood tests.”
“Very difficult to get an appointment with the GP. Can be frustrating that you cannot book an appointment in advance. Calling every morning and not getting through. ”
Comments:
We’re pleased that patients generally feel that it is getting easier to get help for your medical needs, but recognise there is still some way to go. As a practice, we are keen to improve in terms of ‘continuity of care’ (i.e. seeing the same doctor most times, where possible – this is an advantage because they know you and your medical history).
For HCA (Healthcare Assistants, who do our blood tests) – we’re limited by when the blood samples are collected by the lab for analysis each day – so for example, we cannot offer evening HCA appointments as the samples would not be processed in time by the lab. We understand that it can be difficult to make these appointments, and have some (limited) weekend capacity to help support with this.
It’s not always possible to book things directly online, simply because we found our systems were too complicated – there is a massive variety of types of appointment, and we had a lot of patients booking them who didn’t actually need them. As a result, we’re looking instead to expand our use of ‘self-booking’ links. Under this system, you receive a text from us and simply pick the time slot you want for your appointment. We used them for our flu/COVID clinics in Autumn 2022, and have recently started using them for long term condition reviews. We hope this will take pressure off the phone lines and make it easier for patients to book online (which makes it easier to get through on the phone for those who cannot use online).
Other Comments
“The 8am first-come, first-served, process should be scrapped; better access to routine appointments; providing more information within the patient record on the NHS app; providing (or better advertising) proactive health services such as blood pressure checks.”
We agree that the 8am first-come, first-served process is outdated, and are actively looking for alternative ways to structure the practice. We hope to provide more details on this in the near future but will be working with the aim of trying to help as many patients as possible with their queries as the main focus.
“Was a telephone appointment initially, only got a face to face when I stressed it was not something that could be dealt with over the phone”
For the majority of appointments we are now able to offer the choice of face to face or phone, however this is not possible for all appointments (the clinician may be working remotely), and our survey showed that over 96% of respondents had received the format of appointment they preferred (around 75% face to face, 21% phone). We hope this kind of comment is now a minority, but are continually reviewing how we can offer better patient choice, which we feel is more important than just providing face to face appointments for the sake of it, as these don’t suit everybody.
Finally…
Just some of the shout outs for our amazing colleagues:-
“Linda answered the phone to me and she was lovely and helpful and efficient when I explained two problems I have”
“Dr Hyde is the best doctor you have and is the most helpful caring gp I’ve had since I can remember”
“I think that Sister Ritchie is an absolute asset to the practice and has been so helpful when she knows that I have needed her advice.”
“gp Dr Youseff Khan has gone above and beyond for my daughter ”
“Midwife service was very good- Jen is lovely.”
“Sr Kaur is without doubt the most helpful member of staff, and is very knowledgeable in the field of diabetes.”
