PRG & Results of the Patient Survey

Grantham Centre Practice:

PRG & Results of the Patient Survey

The steps taken to ensure that our Patient Reference Group (PRG) is representative of our patients.

This is done in line with the requirements of the Patient Participation Directed Enhanced Service. We will review the demographics of the PRG so that we ensure that our group is a fair representation of our practice population.

The information below is related to the demographic about our practice which is taken from the Public Health Observatories (becoming part of the Public Health England with effect from April 2013). The information is available on their website [

The opening hours of the surgery are as follows:

Weekday / Times / Extended hours
Monday / 8am to 6:30pm / 6:30pm to 7pm
Tuesday / 8am to 6:30pm
Wednesday / 8am to 6:30pm / 6:30pm to 7pm
Thursday / 8am to 6:30pm
Friday / 8am to 6:30pm / 6:30pm to 7pm

The age of our population is mostly within the Lambeth trend, although our male population between the ages of 25 to 54 is higher than the Lambeth trend. We have fewer younger population from 0 – 19. We have a higher working / retired population than the Lambeth average. Our elderly population require a higher degree of primary care. The patient in the working group do find it difficult to attend meetings although we have set up an email presenting the group to comment / suggest items for the agenda of our meetings for discussion.

Age of PRG v Practice Population

Age / Practice population / PRG / Survey responders
Under 18 / 13% / 1% / 0%
18 – 25 / 10% / 1% / 5%
26 – 35 / 24% / 2% / 40%
36 – 45 / 19% / 2% / 13%
46 – 55 / 16% / 1.3% / 19%
56 – 65 / 9% / 1.1% / 13%
66 - 75 / 6% / 1% / 5%
Over 75 / 4% / 1.2% / 5%
Ethnic Group / Practice population / PRG / Survey Responders
White British / 20% / 2% / 18%
Black / 21% / 6% / 50%
Asian / 3% / 1.8% / 2.5%
Mixed / 5% / 1.8% / 5.2%
Other / 11% / 3.8% / 23.6
Gender / Practice Pop. / PRG / Survey Responders
Male / 55% / 1.08% / 44.73%
Female / 45% / 1.98% / 55.27%

A lot of the members that we recruited were from working backgrounds. This meant that they had found it difficult to attend meetings. Those that could come to meetings are either retired or live close to premises which meant very little or hardly any travelling. Because of this, we made our group partly virtual. This meant that, yes we do have meetings but that we would not solely base it on physical attendance. We ensured that patients had the opportunity to be involved by email or completing the surveys. Patients have access to the Practice Manager and staff in order for them to come and talk to us on separate issues if this is what they needed.

To reach our population of our Portuguese patients, we have receptionists and clinical staff who speak these languages. We also provide information to these groups in their language. Our questionnaire was also in these Portuguese as all as English. We have a problem with translating to other languages because of cost. However, our website can give us the facility to translate to other languages.

Our recruitment process for the PRG we advertised this in the reception area and waiting rooms. We also have this on our website for patients to sign up. Our staff also inform patients about our PRG.

What we decided to reach agreement on

With the agreement of the PRG we focussed our areas of concern on the following:

-Access to services

-Seeing a doctor or nurse

-Aesthetics

-Overall satisfaction with the surgery and services

These were discussed in the original meeting and in Last year and reviewed again with an interval timeframe so that a comparison could be made.

With the CQC now established, we will be working with the group to meet the requirements that the practice must meet.

Obtaining the views of our registered population

In agreement with our PRG, we sought the views of our patients in response to the survey. We encourage feedback from our website, NHJS choices, PALS or seeking the views with our questionnaire. If patients are unable to complete questionnaire, we will ask them questions on some of the agreed themes. Our process is to engage patients in the decisions for their care which we hope our survey reflects.

ACCESS TO SERVICES

Do you book appointments by: Ease of getting through on the phone Ease to get test results by phone

Ease to speak to a Dr on phoneEase to speak to a nurse over the phone

Last saw a Dr or Nurse?How easy is it to get into the building?

Easy to see a Dr? Easy to see a Nurse?

Are you satisfied with opening hours?

Observations / Action Plan for the practice
From the survey, most people do find it easy to get through on the telephone to book their appointment. However, there has been a decline of satisfaction by 10% from last year.
However, this year we saw a lot of patients that booked their appointments through visiting the surgery. In a change from last year, from the section of patients who did the questionnaire, no patient booked their appointment online. This will call for some form of advertisement to increase the use of online facility. / We still strive to make booking appointments as easy as possible. In a change of direction from last year, most people seem to book their appointment by visiting the surgery. We will advertise the use of online booking more widely. Arrangements are in place for us to do this.by supplying leaflets to our patients and advertise this throughout the practice. We may need to change the setting of the website to make this more visible for our internet users. Also, we will have staff available to answer any queries about using this service. Also, we have increased our list by an extra 400 patients, which trying to work on two lines, places difficulty on us. We are in contact with our phone supplier to discuss possible new phone capacity.
Most people find it relatively easy to get an appointment to see a doctor or a nurse. / Although we are pleased to see that patients can get an appointment with a doctor or nurse at their appointed time. We do need to focus on the 11% that tell us that they find it hard to see a doctor. Like last year, we will always try to ensure that our access is kept at a high level and this will be constantly monitored. Instead of the patients filling in yet another questionnaire, the PM will set aside some time in each working day to ask patients personally. The type of questions will be devised and shared with the PPG before embarking on this route. We have had a decrease in available appointments since Dr N Soysa retired. However, we have stabilized this by appointing 3 doctors to fill the sessions that Dr Soysa worked.
There has been a decrease in satisfaction of our opening hours. We’ve noticed a 10% drop. / This is being discussed with our PPG. We need to ascertain why this has happened. Further discussions with the PPG and patients attending surgery, to find out what’s needed to make improvements / what they want to see and what’s realistic
Same theme as last year, more patients do not try to speak with the doctor or nurse over the telephone. / We need to focus more about telephone consultations. This wasn't advertised as widely as we'd hoped last year. We will need to set this as one of the priorities for this year's agenda. We will try and educate patients to become aware that telephone consultations may be all it needs. Although there has been a decrease in the ease at which patients can speak with a GP or a nurse, we now have 3 female GPs working at the practice doing extra sessions.

Seeing a doctor or a nurse

When you last made an appointment If you weren't able to be seen during2 weekdays, why was that?

to see the Dr or nurse, were you able

to see them on the same day or within

the next 2 weekdays?

Last time you saw the Dr how goodLast time you saw the Nurse how good

were they at asking about your symptoms?were they at asking about your symptoms?

Last time you saw a Dr how good were Last time you saw a Nurse how good were

they at explaining tests and treatments?they at explaining tests and treatments?