THE GP PATIENT EXPERIENCE SURVEY 2009
The NHS and we at The Bush Doctors aim to provide the highest standards of care for our patients.
We want to involve our patients in deciding what some of those standards should be. Between January and April 2009 5 ½ million people across England were invited to take part in a postal survey asking them about their experience of GP services.
The responses to your postal surveys will form the basis of plans to change our service for the better.
The results of this first survey were released in June 2009 and the NHS plans to continue to asking patients their opinion sending out regular surveys throughout the year.
It is important to all of us to participate in this process if we are to improve the care provided. Doctors, nurses and reception staff are all patients at sometime too.
If you receive a survey asking your opinion please try to complete and return it .
Our Results
Overall 87% of our patients are satisfied with the service they receive at the Bush Doctors
The Good
Most of our patients appear happy with the following
Cleanliness and ease of access to the surgery
Interaction with receptionists
Treatment by doctors and nurses
We were pleased to learn that most patients > 80% felt their concerns were dealt with in a caring way, that they were given adequate time with the doctor who listened and explained their care well More than 90% has confidence in their doctor. Similar results were seen for our nurses.
We Could Do Better
Getting through on the telephone
Getting test results by phone
Length of wait in waiting room
Booking ahead for appointments
Information on Out of hours care
More than 50% of our patients have difficulty getting through on the phone and particularly with getting results ( only 29 % found this easy) .
Only 48 % of people felt that normally they don’t have to wait too long in the waiting room and just 58% were happy with being able to book appointments in advance
What next
We have all read the results of the survey in detail and have spent time discussing which issues we will address first and how we are going to do that.
We will be exploring the possibility of increasing the number of telephone lines in to the surgery and looking at the way we manage calls throughout the day
We will be trying to streamline the telephone system so calls are directed to the most appropriate person as quickly as possible .We plan to operate a dedicated results service which will operate during certain times.
All the doctors will be assessing how long they keep patients waiting beyond their allocated appointment time. Depending on those results we will introduce measures to try to reduce wait times as much as possible.
At present it is generally only possible to book an appointment 1 week in advance – as from January 2010 we will be increasing this to 1 month in advance.
Since the initial survey we have extended opening times and therefore the number of available appointments, we have also employed another doctor. We hope this will also help to make it easier to book an appointment.
The changes we make are intended to improve your ability to get access to the care you need in the easiest way.
Let us know what you think - complete a questionnaire if you get one
More detailed information about our survey results is available at
www.gp-patient.co.uk/results