Meeting with Representatives of Patient Group

PATIENT SURVEY

We contacted members of our Patient Group to ask them to suggest questions for inclusion in the Survey. It was agreed that it would be beneficial to repeat the 2012 survey and make a comparison of results. 861 patients took part in the Survey during February, either in the surgery or on-line. We were pleased to see that the results were again very positive but there were some areas that indicated improvement might be possible. A meeting was held with representatives of the Patient Group to discuss the results of the Survey and discuss how we might address the concerns that patients had raised. The following is a summary of that meeting:

MEETING WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF PATIENT GROUP

15th March 2013

The meeting was attended by Dr Bakewell, Dr Agarwal, Dr Wijekoon, Dr Mackin, Dr Ramoo, Julie Price – Practice Manager, Beverley Lampitt - Practice Manager, Jo Roman -Head Receptionist and 10 patient representatives. 3 apologies were received.

Donna Derby – Interim Chief Operating Officer of Mid Essex Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) At the request of some of our Patient Representatives Donna gave an informative talk about the priorities for health care for 2013/2014 including how our services are funded (£900 per patient, one of the lowest in the country with some being as high as £1,600). Donna advised the Group that patients are invited to bi-monthly meetings of the CCG at various locations within the mid-Essex locality

Patient Survey

Comparison of 2012 and 2013 results: The results of the 2013 Survey were very similar to 2012. Some areas had shown improvement and some a small decline in satisfaction. Those highlighted as being of concern were:

·  The availability of appointments with preferred GP. It was agreed that this is a difficult problem to resolve; however a similar finding had been shown in a recent audit of Practice appointments and telephones suggesting that offering booking further in advance might improve access to a preferred GP, as well as reducing pressure of “on-the-day” appointments. Initial thoughts were that this would be a backwards step as this had been an option in previous years. The GPs agreed to discuss this in more detail and consider a trial of bookings further in advance. The Practice was shown to offer slightly above the national average number of appointments per patient indicating that there was an issue of managing appointments appropriately rather than increasing appointments.

·  ACTION: discuss with team members how the appointment system might be changed to enable booking further in advance

·  Satisfaction with the friendliness and approachability of receptionists at Great Notley was markedly reduced in the year’s Survey results. However, whilst the level of satisfaction had dropped, the number of patients expressing dissatisfaction had not increased drastically, but it was noticeable the number of patients with no opinion had increased dramatically. It was felt this may be due to patients using on-line booking and self-check-in at the Surgery thereby reducing contact with receptionists. Members of the Patient Group were surprised by these results as they all felt the staff did a good job and recognised that the same staff work at both surgeries.

·  ACTION: Discuss at next reception meeting and consider why there is a difference of opinion at each surgery and consider what improvements could be made.

Review of actions from 2012:

·  Online booking had been promoted and the Practice had seen an increase in usage although approximately 50% of patients who stated they were aware of online services did not use them. Some patients raised concern that patients who do not have internet access may be disadvantaged as online booking increased. At the present time all GP advance booking appointments are available for online booking but only a minority of patients use the service – 1,287 appointments were booked on line in the previous 12 months. The Practice monitors the online activity and would ensure that some appointments were reserved for telephone only booking should the online use increase to a significant level.

·  ACTION: Continue promotion of on-line services

·  Waiting times continue to be a concern although patients were more satisfied at Great Notley this year than last year. The Practice had publicised the option to request longer appointments if patients had multiple problems to discuss and this had proved to be effective. One member of the Group felt that patients have a poor understanding of what takes place in a 10 minute slot, not realising that as well as discussing the health concern, the GP views the notes, greets the patient in the waiting room and has to record the consultation afterwards. The patient was disappointed that patients who had such complaint had not attended the meeting.

·  ACTION: Continue to monitor waiting times

·  Failure to attend – Since last year the Practice had introduced text message appointment reminders to patients which had resulted in a small drop in failed appointments. The Practice DNA (did-not-attend) rate is approximately 3.2% which reflects the national average. Guidance indicates that it may not be effective to use resources trying to reduce DNA rates unless the rate exceeds 8%. The Practice would continue to monitor the rates.

Future of the Patient Group:

·  Purpose of the Group - A question was raised as to the purpose of the meeting and whether it was of value to the Practice. The Practice felt the value was significant and was very pleased to have 10 patients present. Although the number of patients expressing an interest in the Patient Group was 135, very few had responded to invites to be more actively involved, preferring just email communication.

·  One member noted that the majority of patients present were probably aged 50+ and suggested that an evening meeting might attract younger patients. There was agreement to this and it was further suggested that meetings should alternate between day-time and evening.

·  ACTION: Next meeting to be scheduled for 6 months in the evening to encourage attendance by broader range of participants.

·  National Association of Patient Participation - It was noted that some Patient Groups are very active within their Practice communities and questioned whether there was an interest for more involvement from members of our Group. There is a National Association for Patient Participation which promotes and supports patient participation in primary care. At the present time our Group is not structured in such a way and individual members do not communicate. Julie Price advised that if patients were keen to increase their activity she would be happy to be the conduit for an exchange of contact details but that an active Patient Group would need to be self-managed. One member of the Group suggested that an active group could help raise funds for essential equipment and asked if the GPs could identify items that would benefit patients. The Practice had recently used patient donations to purchase blood pressure monitors for loan to patients which had proved very beneficial in monitoring patient’s health. Dr Bakewell suggested that the purchase of bedwetting alarms for loan to children would prove highly beneficial as this medical condition causes considerable stress within families.

·  ACTION: Julie Price to liaise with interested members of the group to share contact information

Juliet Mungai-Kimani, Superintendent Pharmacist – Brook Hill Pharmacy attended the meeting at the request of patients to answer queries relating to the pharmacy. Most of the questions were patient specific and would be dealt with outside the meeting.

Meeting closed: 3.15pm