1. Results of Patient Survey
What do you think of our Doctor First Telephone Appointment System

2. The Survey - Who, What and When
Who patients from this practice were interviewed by members of the Patient Participation Group (PPG); 250 face-to-face in the surgery and a further 125 over the telephone
What - All patients were asked a specific set of questions designed to find out just what you thought about the new system whether it be good or bad
When - The new telephone appointment system started at the beginning of September and it was agreed it should bed in before the survey took place. The survey was carried out during December 2016 with the results presented to the Practice and the PPG in March 2017

3. What were patients pleased with? (1 of 2)
98.4% of patients felt that receptionists dealt with their call sympathetically and efficiently
96.5% of patients were satisfied with the time the receptionist said a doctor would telephone to discuss the patient's concern
93.6% of patients confirmed that a doctor had telephoned within the timeframe indicated by the receptionist
92.5% of patients thought their telephone discussion with the doctor was either very helpful or helpful

4. What were patients pleased with? (2 of 2)
97.9% of patients, if asked by the doctor to come into the Practice to be seen, were satisfied with the appointment time offered
88.4% of patients who were told during their call that they did not need to come into the Practice to see a doctor were either very satisfied or satisfied with this outcome
96.8% of patients confirmed, if asked to come into see a doctor, that they got into their appointment at, or close to, the time frame agreed during the telephone consult

5. What were patients less pleased with?
Areas where patients were less welcoming of the new process were as follows:
Only 62.1% of patients managed to get through to reception with little to no delay
Only 63.9% of patients were aware the new telephone based system was going to be introduced
Of those patients not knowing of the new system, 54.7% thought the Practice should have better ensured that they knew about the changes

6. What happens now? (1 of 2)
The Practice is committed to providing the best possible care for its patients and whilst pleased with the overall findings of the survey recognises that it continually needs to look at ways it can improve.
The area you tell us we need to improve most is the telephone call through to reception and we have already recruited another member of staff to help reception staff deal with telephone enquiries as well as seeking another apprentice to also help out
The practice also recognises the telephone switchboard itself is now out of date but unfortunately are contractually tied into using it for the foreseeable future.

7. What happens now? (2 of 2)
However to further reduce pressure on the switchboard we will be actively promoting during May and June two initiatives which if taken up by patients will help reduce waiting to get through to reception. These are:
‘No Wait’ Online Booking of telephone consultations with a doctor of your choice
Voluntary Call Spreading - if we didn’t all ring between 8.00 to 9.00 but deferred our calls (unless urgent) to later in the day or even another day waiting times would reduce significantly . To illustrate the problem Monday mornings in particular are horrendous even when we have up to 6 staff answering calls

8. The Patient Participation Group (PPG)
The PPG actively supports and works with the Practice in its commitment to provide the best possible care for its patients.
The PPG is made up from ‘volunteer’ patients who meet up with Practice team every 6 weeks, for about 2 hours in the early evening, to discuss general and specific issues that might improve the service and care provided to patients. The Practice team consists of the Site Manager, the Practice Administrator with at least one of the Partner Doctor’s attending on a rotation basis.
If you would like to contribute more to your Medical Practice and find out about the the work of the PPG feel free to contact either:
Katie Bush, Practice Site Manager or Chloe Hodgkinson Practice Administrator on