Beaumont Park Medical Group
Patient Group Report 2014/15
Introduction and Overview
Beaumont Park Medical has its situated on Hepscott Drive in Whitley Bay. The surgery provides primary medical
services to patients in Whitley Bay and surrounding areas.
Our list size is approximately 6600 and has not altered much over the last few years.
There are 5 partners at the practice and our opening hours are;
Mon 8.00am – 6.30pm
Tue 8.00am – 6.30pm
Wed 7.00am – 8.00pm
Thurs 8.00am – 6.30pm
Fri
7.00am-6.30pm
Patient Participation Group (PRG) Profile
Beaumont Park Medical Group has over the past few years had a virtual PRG where all communication was done via email, however the group have formed a face to face forum this year and have met three times. The virtual group are kept
informed and invited to actively contribute and comment on agendas and minutes from the face to face group.
The practice are continually trying to recruit new patients to join the group. The current profile of members is
3 Male
5 Female
3 aged 45-54
1 aged 55-64
Ethnic Origin is all White British.
4 aged 65-74
Whilst we are aware that the group is not very diverse the make-up of the group offers a wide range of experience and
includes both working and retired patients, patients with long term conditions and two members of the group that are
active within North Tyneside’s Clinical Commissioning Group patient forum. The practice have posters in surgery and
information on the practice website about becoming a member of the PRG. GP’s and practice staff also actively
encourage patients to be involved.
Priorities that were agreed by the virtual group in 13/14 were;
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Closure of branch surgery and Upgrading to main surgery
Reception Customer Service
Telephone Answering
Face to Face Patient Group
Update on Progress made – to be agreed by PRG;
Closure of branch surgery and Upgrading to main surgery
The branch surgery was closed on 31st July 2014. There was extensive patient consultation prior to this happening and
the majority of patients registered at the branch surgery have successfully transferred care to the main surgery on
Hepscott Drive.
The practice transferred all the clinical sessions that were being provided at the branch surgery so there was no loss of
appointment availability.
The practice also introduced a nurse practitioner triage system at the beginning of the week to help deal with minor, acute
illness and also to direct patients to the most appropriate service within a reasonable time scale. This has been very
successful and the availability of appointments during the year has fully met with patient demand. The waiting times to
see any GP have been approximately 2 days throughout the year, waiting times for a specific GP at a specific time have
been longer.
Reception Customer Service
Following several complaints about poor customer service from reception staff the practice have introduced new workflow
plans for staff to give clear guidance on responsibilities. The practice have also done some in house training and have
held regular staff meetings to address any issues. This has made a big difference to the feedback from patients about
customer service at the practice. This will be continued through 2015/16.
Telephone Answering
Patients felt that the time taken to answer telephones in the practice was unacceptable. The practice reviewed this and
discussed with the reception staff what the issues were. It was established that a lot of time was spent dealing with
requests for repeat prescriptions. The practice have encouraged all patients to order repeat prescriptions on line and the
number of patients doing this since April 2014 has increased by approximately 60%. The practice have also recently
introduced a telephone answering service for patients to leave repeat prescription request on. This has made a significant
improvement to the availability of staff to answer phones and has also improved the service to patients who can now
order prescriptions by telephone 24hrs a day, 7 days a week.
Face to Face Patient Group
This has been established. The group had its first face to face meeting in October 2014. This has enabled the group to
develop new opportunities and we now have two patients who are actively involved in the CCG patient group. The CCG
have established working groups for several domains and we are now receiving valuable feedback form our
representation on this group.
Previous Years Progress
1. Speak to a GP on the phone.
 This was something that was difficult for us as there were issues with timings and expectation of what can
be dealt with over the phone. However we have continued to offer this service and have altered and
amended it as needed to suit the needs of the patients within the limits of the practice. This is now a widely
used and accepted service that works well. GP's generally deal with 3 patients on the phone in the same
time that they would see 1 patient face to face.
2. See a GP within 48 hours.
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Due to the introduction of a nurse practitioner and a beginning of the week triage system we can achieve
this. There are very few occasions when we cannot offer an appointment with 48hrs.
3. Comfort of Waiting Room.
 We have re-decorated the waiting room and have a plan to replace the floor covering, we hope that this
improves the comfort of the waiting room.
4. Illness Prevention.
 We have now trained up more staff to provide HCA services which releases nurse time to provide more
availability for chronic disease review. The introduction of a nurse practitioner with extended skills has also
helped with this. We have also actively campaigned to offer NHS health checks and this year, we were also
the top practice for over 65 flu vaccinations in North Tyneside.
5. Reminder Systems.
 We use sms messaging to remind patients of appointments which has cut down on dna's.