Township 1 & 2 Neighbourhood Wide Receptionist Forum Julie Coakley, Practice Manager, Charnock Medical Centre Helen Lenthall, Business Manager, Hackenthorpe Medical Centre

Background 11 Practices within Townships 1 & 2 Historically no collaborative working beyond Practice Manager level No Support/Training for Reception Staff No opportunities to raise issues/concerns No opportunities to share good practice

Concept An opportunity for Receptionists from 11 practices to come together and share best practice, develop their talents and be an important cornerstone in the development of Neighbourhood working.

The Forum Bi Monthly – 2hrs – Birley Health Centre Facilitated by Neighbourhood Leads (Julie and Helen) – Ultimately this will be self managed Informal and Relaxed Opportunity to share common challenges around the role Share what works well, with a view to sharing and adopting good practice across the Neighbourhoods Within Townships 1 and 2, practices are starting to share knowledge and expertise.

What Works Well? Monthly meeting with doctors and nurses Deal with complaints at the front desk before it becomes an issue Team work Significant events meetings Have a complaints committee Have a P.A. supporting the duty doctor Just get on with the job when covering for annual leave or sickness Daily rotas for receptionist to give them a variety of duties Feel they give a personal service to patients Have nice patients Have support of the practice manager Text Messages from patients to cancel appointments Go above and beyond for patients Caring, very receptive Buddy system so if a receptionist is off then they have someone to ring to cover Are well organised so others can take over Multi skilled Support each other Daily comms cells, all teams including receptionists Socialise outside of work to build better relationships

Issues PLIs when doctors and nurses go to PLIs receptionists are just left to carry on working, nothing for them Small working areas Pressure at holiday times and sickness leave to cover on reception Booking ambulances and ambulance wait times Lack of appointments. Not just on the day but 3 to 4 weeks before a routine appointment. (Not a problem in all practices) Transport appointments, getting patients an appointment to suit the transport Requests from pharmacies Stressful !!!! Huge demand for prescriptions Receptionists giving results to patient without additional clinical information, patient asks questions that receptionists cannot answer Demanding, abusive patients and the support from managers and doctors when dealing with the patient Controlled drugs requests and process for collection Number of telephone calls Patients queuing outside the practice first thing in the morning Patients not using touch screen to book arrival Patients who DNA Lack of flexibility with receptionists to cover annual leave and sick leave Missing prescriptions Variations on how doctors work within the same practice

Evaluation Feeling that we could learn from each other Would like this meeting to carry on A refreshing change to be included Sharing views (open and honest) We’re not on our own The offer of a talk on stress management to be taken up Lots of good ideas mentioned in the group Needed more time to start addressing issues If not the reception supervisor attending it may be difficult to cascade to others at the practice Thoroughly enjoyed Lots of eye opening conversations Would like training on dealing with aggressive patients but also a protocol on how the patient is then handled by doctors and managers. Monthly meetings, with more time I was reluctant at first but now feel differently Visit each others practices to learn differently ways of working Feeling that we could help each other More structure for future meetings Realisation that all practices have similar problems To see so many attendees was positive We are all in the same boat If the meetings continue on a monthly basis, have a topic of the month

Next Steps Continue to build relationships - Social Event Continue to develop Concept Address concerns/Issues Support implementation of Care Navigation Training Buddying