The Ryan Medical Centre Patient Questionnaire Action Plan 2016

Patient Reference Group(PRG) Our Patient Reference Group act as your representatives – they are all patients of the practice and assist the practice in looking at things from the patient point of view. Along with them we look at how we can improve the practice for everyone. We produced a patient questionnaire and the PRG reviewed the results, from the results an action plan was put together of the areas of priority in the coming year.

Are you aware of the electronic prescription service? 63% of people who answered were aware of this service, which was encouraging. It was agreed that the service should be continued to advertised.

Are you aware that appointments can be booked online? 74% of patients that answered this question were aware of the service Only 19% of patients have actually used the service however. Advertising to continue and staff will promote the service opportunistically – although it was acknowledged that the majority of patients who have not used the service would most likely not have the equipment to do this.

Availability of GP appointments outside working hours There was demand for early morning, evening and weekend opening. At the time the PRG met the practice did not know if the GP Increased Access and Extended Hours schemes were going to be offered to practices from 1st April onwards. Both of these services have been renewed – the practice will continue to open at 7.30 am and on some Sunday mornings, the possibility of evening opening is currently being explored locally

Would you be interested in automated telephone booking? 71.5% of patients said they would be interested in this. The new telephone system at the practice has the facility to have this method of booking as an additional feature. It was agreed that this should be tested fully and implemented as an additional way in which to book appointments

Would you find it beneficial to contact the practice via email? This question got an almost 50:50 split of responses. The PRG felt that this would be a useful tool. The practice will look at how this should be monitored and will have a generic email address set up as an additional means of non-urgent communication with the practice

Are you aware that we are now using text messaging as a means of communication? Although only 63% of patients were aware of this, 74% said they would be interested in this service. The practice will advertise the service and staff will promote the service opportunistically. A text reminder will be sent to patients who book appointments in advance. The practice will also send questionnaires and health check reminders via this method and will notify patients when test results have been received.

In addition to the above we also intend to Make next years patient questionnaire available online via the practice website Continue to encourage new members of the PRG Look at extending collaborative working with other local practices in order to benefit patients locally