Welcome to Our First Newsletter of 2014
We’ve had lots of changes in the past 12 months and life at the practice has been extremely eventful and very busy.
- We now have two additional doctors, Dr Thomas and Dr Breslin, who joined us on a part time basis.
- Sue Warman, our Health Care Assistant retired at the end of December 2013. Julie Flynn is now our full time Health Care Assistant.
- At the end of March 2014, Dr Felicity Paling, our locum GP for Dr Lynch, left the practice to have a baby.
- Dr Lynch is now back at the practice on a phased return. From mid-May, Dr Lynch will be back, working on a part time basis.
- Dr Pillon is our GP Trainee this year and will be with us until August 2014.
- The Dunstan Partnership became the first practice in Bolton to achieve the Gold Award for Pride in Practice. We are very proud to have been given this award. The award was presented to the practice on Thursday 6th March 2014.
Practice Questionnaire Results and Feedback
The Practice carried out a Patient Questionnaire in February 2014. It was agreed that we should look at the whole patient journey within the practice and, instead of doing one survey, we should do regular surveys, which would enable us to get patient feedback in more depth. The best place to start would be at the beginning of the patient journey, so patient access, the to contact the practice in general, making an appointment, and our Reception Service were the subjects of our first Questionnaire of the year.
The Practice Survey was carried out during a period of one week in February 2014. The practice gave out 500 questionnaires and received 431 responses in total.
49 responses were incomplete in some way and only the free text comments were used in those cases, giving a total of 382 completed responses.
Part 1 – Accessing your GP
92% of patients were either very satisfied or satisfied with the surgery opening hours.
85% of patients found our appointment system very convenient or convenient.
88% of patients booked their appointments by telephone.
76% of patients stated that they would like to book their appointment online.
81% of patients stated they would like to get text reminders of their appointments.
Part 2 – Making an Appointment
This part of the survey asked about the last time patients accessed our service and which service they required at that time. The majority of responses indicated that patients were accessing a GP appointment.
42% of patients wanted to book an appointment within a few days.
26% of patients wanted to book an “on the day appointment”.
13% of patients wanted to book a future appointment within 2 weeks.
6% of patients wanted to book a medically urgent appointment.
5% of patients wanted to book a telephone appointment.
3% of patients wanted to book a future appointment more than 2 weeks ahead.
5% no response.
78% of patients were able to get the type of appointment they wanted.
12% of patients said they were not able to get the type of appointment they wanted but were offered an acceptable alternative.
92% of patients felt that the appointment that they were given, was either very convenient or fairly convenient.
83% of patients rated the appointment access at the surgery as either excellent or good.
When asked for the reason for consulting a GP on their last service access:-
47% of patients stated they were unwell.
15% of patients stated that they were asked to make the appointment by the GP.
12% of patients wanted to ask for some advice.
9% of patients came for a medication review.
7% of patients needed a repeat prescription.
5% of patients came to obtain their test results.
Part 3 – Reception Services
Patients were asked what their last method of contact with the practice was.
71% stated their last contact method was by phone.
28% stated their last contact was face to face at the Reception Desk.
91% of patients rated the receptionists as excellent or good.
89% of patients rated the receptionists’ understanding of their needs as excellent or good.
89% of patients stated that they were always treated with respect by the receptionists.
11% of patients stated that they were sometimes treated with respect by the receptionists.
0% of patients stated that they were not treated with respect
86% of patients stated that the reception staff were always polite and friendly.
12% of patients stated that the reception staff were sometimes polite and friendly.
0% of patients stated that the reception staff were never polite and friendly.
92% of patients stated that they were either very satisfied or satisfied with the receptionists providing clear and concise information.
96% of patients felt that their queries at the reception desk were either always or mostly dealt with to the patients’ satisfaction.
Speed of Telephone Response
33% of patients stated that their call was answered within 1 minute.
27% of patients stated their call was answered within 3 minutes.
20% of patients stated their call was answered within 5 minutes.
17% of patients stated their call was answered immediately (within 3 rings).
0% of patients stated their call was not answered and just rang out.
Training
86% of patients either strongly agreed or agreed that the receptionists were well trained and knowledgeable.
The practice held a meeting with the Practice Patient Participation Group on Friday 18th March 2014, during which time the survey results were discussed and an action plan agreed.
The practice would like to thank the members of our Patient Participation Group who were tremendously helpful with their help and advice with the Questionnaire itself and with the discussions regarding the results and action plan. We very much appreciate the support that we get from the group.
Access and Appointments
The Dunstan Partnership has a patient population of 10,510 patients.
Our Reception Desk is open from 7.30 am – 6.30 pm Monday to Friday.
Our telephone lines are open from 8.30 am – 6.30 pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. On Wednesday mornings, our telephone lines are open from 8.30 am – 12 noon, but the Practice Reception Desk is open until 6.30 pm for patients collecting prescriptions etc.
We are unable to open our telephone lines at 7.30 am, as we only have two reception staff members on early morning reception until 8.30 am. From 8.30 am, we have eight reception staff in total answering the telephones, and we would encourage patients who find themselves in a longish telephone queue, NOT to abandon their calls, as the queue position reduces very quickly.
The Practice offers an appointment system where patients can book routine GP appointments, from on the day to up to 8 weeks ahead. Appointments are released gradually throughout the week.
We also offer Same Day Appointments for those patients who consider their illness to be medically urgent and can’t wait until the next routine appointment. This includes children who are unwell. If you are unwell and need to be seen on the day, please ring as early in the morning as possible, so that we can accommodate you. We would prefer patients who request a same day appointment to attend during the morning surgery time, as we have more doctors on duty in the mornings than we do later on in the day.
Following the questionnaire, which indicated that patients were getting inconsistent information from the reception staff regarding the appointment system, it was decided that the receptionists would follow an agreed standard script.
The next time you telephone the surgery for an appointment:
You will be asked which GP you would like to see. You will then be offered the next routine appointment with that GP. If you are unable to wait for that appointment, you will then be offered the next routine appointment with any GP. If you consider your condition to be medically urgent and you are unable to wait until the next routine appointment, youwill be offered a Same Day Appointment with the GP of your choice, if they are available, if not, a Same Day Appointment with any GP.
For same day appointments you will be asked for a brief description of yourcondition and for your contact telephone number. You will be given an appointment time but warned of the possibility that you may not be seen exactly at that time, due to the unknown nature and length of Same Day Appointment Consultations, so there may well be a longer wait.
You will be informed that the GP will only deal with the condition that is medically urgent as this is not a routine appointment and that the GP may contact you be telephone before your allocated appointment time, to discuss your condition in more detail.
We hope that the above script helps to standardise the information given to patients by the reception staff.
The Practice also offers telephone consultations, so if you feel you don’t need to see a GP face to face, you can ring the practice and ask for a telephone consultation. Your name will be placed on our telephone list and a clinician will ring you back.
Booking Appointments Online
It is now possible to book your GP appointment online by registering via a link on the practice website It’s easy to use. You can make, view and cancel your appointments online. If you have a smart phone, there is an app you can download, which enables you to book your appointments on the move. If you are signed up for our text messaging service, your appointment will be confirmed by text and, providing the appointment is more than 48 hours away, you will receive a text reminder.
Ordering Repeat Prescriptions Online
Using the same link and app. as above, you can view your repeat medication and order your prescription directly via your clinical record. You can even track the progress of your prescription
Electronic Prescribing
For those patients who use a regular pharmacy for their repeat prescriptions, it is now possible to sign up to the Electronic Prescribing Service. By signing up for this service at your pharmacy, it means that you no longer need to collect your prescription from the practice – your prescription will be sent electronically to your nominated pharmacy. If you are interested in this service, please discuss this with your pharmacy, who will be happy to help and sign you up for this.
Repeat Prescriptions
We are often asked for repeat prescriptions to be done urgently because patients have run out of medication. Whilst we try to accommodate these requests, which means that the GPs have to interrupt their surgeries to check/sign these prescriptions, we are now getting increased instances when patients do not bother to collect them for quite a few days. This is very frustrating for the doctors and staff and, to this end, we will be monitoring this issue closely and these requests may be refused for those patients who abuse this system.
Help Us to Help You
Patient demand is currently on the increase, not just in our Practice, but nationally. For example, we have recently been asked for an urgent appointment by a patient who had had a sore throat for half an hour and who demanded to be seen immediately!!
We also have patients who only want to see a particular GP and, whilst we totally understand and try to accommodate and encourage continuity of care, we would like to make patients aware that some GPs do not work full time and are only in the surgery on certain days. Even when GPs do work full time, some surgery sessions are spent training our GP Trainees, or doing Minor Surgery or other medical procedures, and appointments are not available with those GPs at those times.
Self Care
There are things that we would encourage patients to do for simple medical ailments, and these are as follows:-
- Ask your local pharmacy for advice.
- Use the Practice Website for advice on lots of minor medical ailments.
- Make sure you keep a stock of basic minor medications, ie Paracetamol etc.
- Use the 111 service for advice.
- Use the NHS 111 Symptom Checker app, if you have a smart phone.
- Use for information.
E-Cigarettes Information
Last, but not least, we have had lots of queries regarding E-Cigarettes and whether smoking these is allowed in the waiting room.
We have made enquiries and the Breightmet Health Centre Policy is that smoking E-Cigarettes is not allowed anywhere in the building. We hope that this clarifies the position.
We hope that you have found this Newsletter to be useful. We would appreciate your feedback regarding our services and the way in which we provide them. Please send in your comments or suggestions in writing to Vera Bourn,Practice Manager or complete one of our suggestion slips on our reception desk and place them in Suggestions Box located on the right hand side of the reception desk.
Thank you