PATIENT SURVEY

When you contact the surgery do you feel that surgery staff treat you with respect and are polite and courteous?

Do you feel that you are fully involved in decisions about your care?

When you see a doctor/nurse do you feel that you are listened to?

Do you feel that test results are fully explained to you?

What do you consider to be an acceptable length of time to wait for a routine appointment?

When you attend the surgery how important is it to be seen on time? “If in pain is very important, but understand there can be time lapses due to heavy demands on doctors’ time”

At the beginning of November we introduced a telephone triage service. Since that time have you contacted the surgery to ask for an urgent same-day appointment and been telephoned back by a doctor?

If ‘yes’ and the doctor was able to deal with your problem over the phone how satisfied were you with this? If you weren’t satisfied what could we have done better? Once never got call back and ended up in hospital, second was for children. Rapid call-back but waited all day to be seen. What a waste having GP triage! I’m sure NEMS will be mis/over used. Called several times & feel like I have been given medication, but no reassurance that the problem does not have a long-term issue ie no scan recommended. I needed an urgent same day appointment but was asked to have the doctor phone back instead. I could not get an appointment and work shifts, so a call-back was not convenient. I called with concerns about my chest and was seen the same day which I was satisfied with. However I was told if no better in 7 days to contact the doctor again. It took me 5 calls before I was phoned back which was unacceptable.

If ‘yes’ and the doctor brought you in to the surgery later the same day for a face-to- face appointment how satisfied were you with this? If you weren’t satisfied what could we have done better? Ran extremely late, as an adult more acceptable, but not with poorly children The surgery has always been excellent but impact of cutbacks/large numbers will mean genuinely ill will not attend and deteriorate and emergency admissions and stretching of out of hours care including misuse of these services = more expense & more pressure! Face to face care to assess the problem and potential root cause rather than just giving medication costing £7.95 per time.

Over the last 12 months how do you think the service we provide has changed? Please could you explain why you think this? Improved Ability to see preferred doctor Self check-in so don’t have to queue Telephone triage has made it easier to see doctor Prompt service times On all occasions have been seen quickly and professionally Maybe the phone system has relieved some of the pressure on appointments Deteriorated It is not acceptable to not receive face to face care within a reasonable amount of time eg 2 hour waits Changes from PCT to CCG, funding cuts, greater population and demand than resources Replaced old system with what appears to be a much worse system If I am not well I want to see a doctor in person NOT talk over the phone. I have had to wait 3 weeks for an appointment Waiting for an appointment On 2 occasions I’ve seen the nurse because I couldn’t get in with the doctor, but still had to see the doctor because the nurse couldn’t deal with it Stayed the Same Struggle to get before or after work appointment Still a long wait for an appointment, but always great care in an emergency Triage service is probably an improvement to prevent patients wasting valuable time unnecessarily but patients who need to be seen need to be seen quicker

How likely are you to recommend our GP surgery to friends and family if they needed care or treatment? If you would not recommend this surgery could you explain why? I was unsatisfied with the amount of times I called the receptionist, it took 10 days in total to get an appointment You have to wait to see a doctor Because of the triage system and the non-urgency of being given an appointment – 3 weeks is completely unacceptable The appointment system is not working Poor service – I do not feel like an individual If you would recommend this surgery could you explain why? I trust staff/GPs/nurses implicitly for me and my children

Which is more important to you – same day urgent appointments where you may not be able to see your preferred doctor or pre-bookable appointments with a doctor of your choice?

When contacting the surgery by telephone how long do you wait before the telephone is answered?

What time of day do you normally contact the surgery by telephone?

What additional services would you like to see? Making an appointment with a pre-book doctor of your choice not too far away Nothing, just bring resources to meet demand, needs more funding to reduce problems To get an appointment the same day instead of waiting a week Maybe the board that calls you could tell you how far behind the doctor or nurse is running, then this is keeping patients informed Saturday surgery as we are a 7 day week in many jobs and later evening times Doctors very good but have to wait too long for appointments, doctors seem overworked Walk-in centre Drop-in centre for minor problems once a week where you don’t have to wait weeks and weeks, you can get sorted more or less straight away I find this surgery is good, they help you as best they can. Wouldn’t want to change this practice, very thorough indeed

What other suggestions do you have about how we could improve our service to you? Only one problem, phone sometimes difficult to get through. Not an easy problem to solve with volume of patients ringing in. Reduce the waiting time to see a doctor I appreciate you are trying to prioritise and I have never had any problems before, but on this occasion I feel I have been let down More early/late appointments with the nurse I have had to wait for an appointment more than once. I have been referred to the hospital, but didn’t see who I would have liked to see ie a doctor Sunday opening for absolute emergency appointments. If doctors opened more hours it would keep people away from A&E Sometimes 2 receptionists can contact you about the same thing, but give you 2 different messages, or you speak to one person who deals with an issue, but then someone different rings you back with an answer See a doctor of my choice in less than 28 days When seeing a locum doctor it would help if they just took a bit of time to do a quick check about the patient they are about to see cont/d

What other suggestions do you have about how we could improve our service to you? (cont’d) Same day appointment Get more doctors in You try hard with what you have – keep smiling as I am sure it must be tough!