Bere Regis Surgery
Patient Survey January 2013
What happened last year - Patient Survey 2011/2012
The aims of the last survey were to find out what patients of the practice think of the services offered, what improvements they would like and their hopes for the future. The key actions agreed from the results of that survey were:
1.Communication – Regular Practice Newsletter
2.Communication – Improve hospital discharge information
3.Access – Medication Delivery service for housebound patients
4.Clinical Services/Community Involvement – Provide Health Education Events & Raising awareness of Dementia in the community
5.Premises – address space limitations and building design
These have been addressed as follows:
1. There is now a regular Practice Newsletter.
3. A Medication Delivery service has been instigated.
4. The first Health Education Event was held last July.
5. The Practice has obtained planning permission and funding for an extension to the surgery to enhance the treatment room facilities and provide an extra phlebotomy room and sluice area.
What has happened this year - Patient Survey 2012/2013
One of the main aims of the current survey was to assess in more detail the amount and the effectiveness of communication between the hospitals and the surgery, both for patients who have been admitted to hospital and for those attending as outpatients. In addition there were questions about the frequency of use of the various consultation methods and patient’s preferences regarding these.
Survey forms were distributed with copies of the Bere Regis and Affpuddle Parish Magazine and the Red Post magazine at the end of January/beginning of February. Additional copies were available at the surgery for those who needed them. Posters advertising the survey were displayed on notice-boards throughout the catchment area.
In an effort to obtain responses from the widest cross section of patients, the Patient Participation Group delivered almost 700 surveys in total to 22 local organisations including Toddler Groups, First School, youth organisations, The Sports Club, WI and an over 50s club.
RESULTS
Of the 2,000 or so forms distributed, 162 were returned within the stated time limit, which is a slightly disappointing rate of return compared with the last survey and even more so when taking into account the extra efforts made to try to obtain responses from the widest cross section of patients. What the responses do show is that they come from patients who use the surgery and that they are predominately older people.
INPATIENT ADMISSIONS
•Of the returned forms, 25% patients had been admitted to hospital in the last 12 months, the majority (75%) to Dorset County or Poole (20% to Poole) – not all of those admitted indicated which hospital it was.
•Of those admitted and discharged, 80% said they had been sent a letter from the hospital explaining their treatment and the next stage, if any.
•Although the number who said No was small, four of these were to Poole out of 8 admissions while there were only 2 No’s out of 23 admissions to Dorchester.
•The answers to subsequent questions about similar letters to the surgery/district nurse were less clear cut with many “Don’t knows”, although a majority said that the information was available for their next appointment at the surgery.
•78% of the responses showed that the length of time after hospital discharge to the next contact with the surgery was 2 weeks or less.
OUTPATIENT ADMISSIONS
•65% of the respondents had attended an outpatient clinic in the last 12 months.
•A large majority (95%) of those who also stated which hospital this was, were to DorsetCounty or Poole
•The number of patients who personally received a letter explaining their treatment was rather lower than for the inpatient admissions at 59%.
•The number who did not receive a letter was larger than for inpatients, but this time the rates of No’s for the two most used hospitals were much closer than for the inpatient admissions – 29% for Poole against 27% for Dorchester.
•A similar proportion to those who received an explanatory letter personally was sure that a similar letter had been sent to the surgery, and no one said they were certain that the surgery had not been informed. Similarly about half said they did not know whether this information was available to the doctor at their next appointment, and the timing of this next contact with the surgery was significantly longer than for inpatients, with 63% being longer than 2 weeks.
TRANSPORT TO APPOINTMENTS
Despite the large majority of respondents being over 60, only 12 respondents said they had difficulty getting to medical appointments. Of these twelve, 2 people said they relied on home visits while the others relied on friends or family to transport them.
GP APPOINTMENTS AND CONSULTATIONS
Regarding consultation preferences, 90% of patients who had used the Telephone Triage service at least once were happy with it. Only one person out of 49 who had used it was unhappy with the Telephone Consultation process. Just over half of these made a further appointment for the same matter with a large majority making a face to face appointment.
CONSULTATION PREFERENCES
The most clear-cut conclusion from the statements of consultation preferences is that an overwhelming majority of 84% rate a pre-booked appointment first.
The preferences amongst the other four options are less clear, with very little between 2nd Telephone Triage, 3rd Telephone Consultation, 4th Open Surgery Daily, and 5th Open Surgery Wednesday
PROFILE OF PATIENTS RESPONDING
•93% said they were White British and 7% did not respond
•69% aged over 60
•25% aged between 21 and 59
•1% aged under 21
•5% did not respond
Meeting held Wednesday 20th March 2013 7pm
The practice met with members of the PPG to discuss the results of the Patient Survey on Wednesday 20th March 2013.
All agreed the following actions from the survey:
- Practice to review the availability of pre-booked appointments as this was the preferred method of consultation from the survey.
- PPG to look at ways of working with the practice to educate patients on the best use of the different methods of access available.
- PPG to work with the practice in educating patients to request copies of discharge letters from secondary care so that the patient as well as the GP is well informed, which will improve communication between the patient and Practice.
- The practice to develop a simple ‘feedback’ form to collect views, comments and suggestions – a continuous survey.
Agreed action outcomes:
- Practice to provide a further session of GP appointments from July 2013.
- PPG will produce handouts about appointment choices and availability, which will be available to pick up at the practice, published on the website, newsletter and parish magazines.
- Practice and PPG to campaign for patients to request copies of discharge information from hospitals.
- Practice to introduce A5 feedback form for patients to complete after contact with the practice.