ST PETER’S MEDICAL CENTRE

Patient Participation Directed Enhanced Service (DES) Report 2012/3

A copy of this report can be found on

  1. Recruitment of PRG in 2011

St Peter’s was keen to develop a Patent Reference Group (PRG) that represented as far as possible the practice profile. The practice has a high priority of families and a lower than average elderly population. There is a substantial Asian community in the area.

It was decided therefore to combine a core face-to-face group with an email community as it was felt that young parents would find it the most difficult to attend meetings and by being involved online they could contribute to the future of their practice.

A poster inviting patients to be part of the PRG was posted up in the waiting room, on all consulting room doors and throughout the building. It was also advertised on the patient check in screen. The receptionists handed leaflets to all patients and new registrations. GPs had personal invitations to hand to patients if they believed they would help the PRG.

Patients were invited to a number of meetings which formalised the core group which originally consisted of 9 patients, 1 GP and the practice reception manager.

  1. PRG Statistics

The core group now consists of 12 members plus 1 GP, the Reception Manager and the Practice Manager.

A breakdown of the core group includes:

Men-5

Women-7

White-10

Black and ethnic minorities- 2

Working- 5

Retired- 5

Homemakers- 2

The sex breakdown of the group compares with the list size and to have 50% of working adults attend is good. The number of black and ethnic minority members is appreciably lower than the practice demographic whilst the age of the group is higher and every effort continues to be made to make this group more reflective of St Peter’s registered list. It does however include a working mother, a carer and a person classified as disabled.

However the Virtual Reference Group now consists of over 250 members and fully reflects the practice profile in its age, working pattern and ethnic breakdown.

  1. Priorities 2012/3

The 2012 Action Plan and the priorities for the 2012/3 questionnaire were discussed by the core group at a meeting on 27th November 2012.

Feedback was also requested from the virtual reference group.

The Group reviewed the past questionnaire questions but whilst several topics were considered such as knowledge about LINKS or commissioning it was felt more appropriate that these should be covered by the new PRG newsletter.

It was agreed therefore that the Improving Practice Questionnaire (IPQ) should be repeated to identify what changes had taken place over the previous 12 months.

A copy of the IPQ questionnaire is attached as Appendix 1.

  1. Patient Survey 2012/3

The IPQ questionnaire was handed out to all visiting patients during the last two weeks of January 2013. It was also emailed to the members of the virtual reference group.

Two hundred andforty one patients responded to the questionnaire.The results were collated and analysed by CFEP UK Surveys and the results together with patient written feedback sent to the surgery.

These were discussed by the Partners and then by the Core PRG Group on 5th March 2013.

The Chair highlighted that 84% of of all patient ratingsabout this practice weregood, very good orexcellent.

It was also agreed that it was important to concentrate on areas where there was a need for improvement. The identification of outstanding issues where % satisfaction is 5% lower than national average picked out Questions 4,5,13,14,16,18, 19 and 20.

Each member was asked their viewpoint on what they considered the 3 main issues.

These were identified as:

  • Opening hours – need another evening / a weekend maybe ‘walk in’ triage surgery
  • Seeing GP of their choice / Continuity of care
  • Being able to book an appointment within 48hrs of request –for all practitioners
  • Being able to get through on telephone / find available GP appointments on line (usually none for at least 2 weeks)

Other pertinent issues raised by some patients which might be easy to rectify:

  • Hard of Hearing not being able to understand tannoy system – maybe introduce visual system or numbers for those affected
  • GPs to start on time to alleviate waits
  • Referrals – delays in being actioned
  • Water fountain in reception
  • Better selection of magazines
  • Regular over an hour waits for midwife appointments
  • Confidentiality – requesting music in corridors as well as waiting area
  • Better support for those with disabilities and mental health issues
  1. 2013 Action Plan

Priority for action / Proposed changes / Who needs to be involved / What is an achievable time frame?
GP of choice / Improve patient information of practice systems e.g. triage through newsletter
Greater advertising of website for making and altering appointments / Practice manager
Reception manager
Newsletter editor
Practice manager
Reception manager
Newsletter editor / 30 July 2013
Book an appointment within 48 hours / Improve patient information of practice systems e.g. triage through newsletter
Greater advertising of website for making and altering appointments / Practice manager
Reception manager
Newsletter editor
Practice manager
Reception manager
Newsletter editor / 30 July 2013
Get through on the telephone / Make more reception staff available in high demand times 8.30 – 10.00
Introduce new smart phone system / Practice manager
Reception manager
Partners
Practice manager / Immediate
By 30/9/2013
Other issues:
  • Hard of Hearing not being able to understand tannoy system
  • GPs to start on time to alleviate waits
  • Referrals – delays in being actioned
  • Water fountain in reception
  • Better selection of magazines
  • Regular over an hour waits for midwife appointments
  • Confidentiality – requesting music in corridors as well as waiting area
  • Better support for those with disabilities and mental issues
/ – maybe introduce visual system or numbers for those affected
- in-house training
- in-house training
- discuss partnership meeting
- to be provided
- to be reviewed and discussed with midwife and NorthwickParkHospital
- practice to investigate options
-in-house training for all staff / Practice manager
Reception manager
Partners
Partners
Partners
Practice manager
Reception manager
Partners
Practice manager
Partners
Practice manager
Partners
Practice manager
Reception manager / Review by 30/6/13
Continuous
Continuous
Review by 30/6/2013
Immediate
Immediate
Using other local surgeries to reduce waiting time
Review by 30/6/2013
By 30/9/2013
  1. 2011/2 Action Plan issues

A summary of the progress made with the 2011/2 action plan is given below.

Priority for action / Proposed changes / What happened / Effect on 2013 survey
Proposal to introduce Saturday morning surgeries – / 2 per month unless any more funding available reducing Wed evening to 2 per month. If funding does become available can increase number of both to every week. / Proposal not pursued on cost and staffing difficulties
Availability of appointments and ability to see Doctor of Choice – / Currently recruiting another GP and a 2nd F2 (GP trainee). Also recruiting Practice manager which will free up GP time / Recruited / No discernable effect, but see below
Rushed Consultations / This has to be a training issue, will need to decide whether to do in house refresher re ‘Ideas Concerns and Expectations’ or use external resource such as Medical Protection Society / In-house training carried out / Position appears to have improved
Waiting Times in surgery….. /
  • GPs to be encouraged to start surgeries on time
  • Triage issues have to be balanced with needs of waiting patients
  • Constraints need to be better explained to patients ( maybe in a newsletter)
/ GPs and others encouraged. It should be noted that the triage doctor now has protected time to do the triage sotriage call backsshouldn't impact on waiting times in the surgery except in exceptional circumstances (e.g. an acutely ill patient or on an extremely busy day). / No discernable effect on survey rating
Information about services available/ self care/repeat Prescription / Issues & constraints affecting ideals to be explained /collated into an electronic newsletter….
PRG to set up sub group (Sam, Ros & Bob)to meet to take this forward and report back by 30 May. / Newsletter successfully introduced. Michelle the editor.
See Appendix 2
  1. Circulation of report

A copy of this report has been submitted to as a report for the DES Reporting. It has been provided to all the Core group members of the PRG and has been emailed to the virtual group. A copy of it is available in the practice and will be part of the next PRG newsletter.

It is also available on St Peter’s Medical Centre’s website:

Appendix 1


Appendix 2

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