THE VILLAGE SURGERY
AMENBURY LANE
HARPENDEN
AL5 2BT
01582 712021
WWW.THEVILLAGESURGERIES.CO.UK
BACKGROUND
The Village surgery has two sites
1. Main site – Harpenden – 10,000 patients
2. Branch site – Wheathampstead – 6,000 patients.
The Surgery established a PPG over five years ago. All members of the patient
population were encouraged to join the Group- via the website, leaflets in the
surgery, information in the village and word of mouth. The aim of the group was
to have a similar demographic profile to that of the patient population. It is
managed by patients from the Wheathampstead Surgery. The PPG is well
established, has its own website, http://wheathampsteadppg.org.uk/ ,
committee and objectives as below




Enabling a dialogue between doctors and patients to improve the
quality of service provided and to help shape future policies of their
Village Surgery
Arranging Health Talks. Over the past 4 years subjects covered have
been: CHILDREN’S ALLERGIES, OSTEOPOROSIS, CARDIOLOGY,
OBESITY, HIP PROBLEMS AND REPLACEMENTS, GYNAECOLOGY
AND OBSTETRICS, UROLOGY, DEMENTIA, ST FRANCIS HOSPICE –
TERMINAL CARE, DIABETES, UNDERSTANDING AND USING YOUR
PHARMACY, and UNDERSTANDING THE NATIONAL HEALTH
SERVICE
Reaching out to the community by providing a MINI HEALTH FAIR in
the Mead Hall, East Lane, with St John’s Ambulance demonstrating
CPR; a Surgery Doctor taking blood pressure and BMI; a Specialist
Dietician outlining salt and sugar quantities in a typical day’s food
intake and advising on healthy diets
Providing 3 weekly 1-hour sessions on physical fitness on Tuesday
afternoons. These sessions are led by a Physiotherapist and highly
qualified Pilates teacher (with all equipment provided)
Although the practice has had an established PPG this is only the second year
that the Practice has participated in the DES.
Although the PPG is well established in Wheathampstead, the patients from
Harpenden Surgery have not been as well represented and our aim has been to
encourage engagement from Harpenden patients.
We now have a small virtual group in Harpenden and continue to advertise the
group:




On the website
Via twitter
In the surgery
Practice newsletter

New patient information
The group continues to be weighted towards the over 60’s despite the various
initiatives set in place during 2013/14
Schools have been contacted, twitter and email messages sent and leaflets given
to younger patients when they attend surgery. Unfortunately, it is apparent from
other patient groups that the younger people do not engage and a vast majority
of patient groups have a high percentage of over 60 age group members. We feel
we have encouraged a wide range of patients to join the group since its inception
over six years ago.
Please see appendix A re the demographics of the Practice and the PPG.
1. The area has extremely low unemployment and a large percentage of
commuters.
2. Mostly white British population
3. Patients at St Georges boarding school
4. A number of residential homes
5. Meadowacres – for special needs
6. Large number of families
The group concentrated on the following areas during 2013/14
1. Communication
2. Patient access
2014-15
During 2014-15 we continued to work on the above areas with new initiatives
discussed and agreed with the Patient Group.
At the beginning of the current year the PPG was consulted regarding
priority areas and the following areas were agreed
1) Extended hours (starting at 7am and evening surgeries on certain days)
2) Considering triaging via telephone consultations - doctors screening in coming
calls to see if some can be handled without the patients needing to come in or
directing them to the correct person in the practice to help them.
3) Implementing patient partner - automatic telephone booking of
appointments.
4) commence a quarterly newsletter.
What we did next
the proposed introduction of extended hours.
We surveyed all patients via text and paper slips within the surgeries.
We asked:
Would they welcome the introduction of extended opening hours
If so would they prefer morning 7-8, evening 6.30-8.30pm or both
We received 2044 replies broken down as follows
Morning 213
Evening 783
Both 1048
We discussed the results with the PPG and commenced extended opening hours
on 1.7.14.
We advertised the new service via text messages, on the website and notices in
the surgeries.
The extended hours have been very well received by patients and the surgery
has received many positive comments from patients. The extended hours have
especially benefitted the working population – however all patients have
benefitted due to the increased number of appointments. We have discussed
feedback received from patients with the PPG – examples of comments received:
The concept of early and late closing is an excellent one but I do hope it is
not abused by those who are able to come in at a more appropriate time. I
know, for example, that at one of your opposition surgeries there are too
many people who don't need to come on a Saturday morning and are taking
appointments away from those who do.
I think the extra surgery hours are a good idea,
Information has been published in the PPG newsletter, on the website, surgery
newsletter, by text and information on twitter
Patient Partner automated telephone appointment booking service
The surgery had commenced on line appointment booking during 2013-14 and
this had proved very popular with the patients. We had started to investigate the
patient partner system and had various discussions with the PRG. We had
various technical difficulties setting the system up however we decided to go live
with the system on 1.12. 14. We advertised the system via text, on the website
and in the surgeries. We also attached information to prescriptions and
discussed with patients when they came to the surgery.
We had some technical difficulties with the system at our branch surgery.. We
discussed how the system would work for the branch surgery with the PRG and a
member of the PRG came into the Surgery to have a demonstration of the system.
It was then agreed that the system would go live at the branch surgery on 2.1.15
and notices were placed in the waiting room and receptionists discussed the
system with as many patients as possible.
The system has proved to be extremely popular with many patients and again we
have received many positive comments from patients.
Patient Partner: I have used it and found it excellent, though we are all
surprised at how easy it is to see Dr Ingram at 0800!
The system enables patients to make, cancel or change an appointment 24 hours
a day via the telephone – patients can choose when to make an appointment and
are not restricted to surgery opening hours.
A report re the usage of the system will be included in the Spring newsletter
Telephone consultations
We do not have a formal for telephone consultations with GPs. We held a survey
to obtain the patients’ views. The overwhelming response from patients was that
they thought telephone consultations were an excellent idea especially for the
working population. We are still in the process of implementing telephone
consultations and will keep the PPG informed
Phone consultations: again it is 2015 so it seems logical to me - the doctor
has all our details in front of him, and I guess half of us have Google open at
the right page as well!
Automated telephone booking I have not tried yet but think telephone
consultations could be beneficial.
Newsletter
It was felt that there had been many improvements to the services at the practice
and to ensure we communicated the changes to as many patients as possible it
was thought a quarterly patient newsletter should be introduced. The PPG
already publishes a newsletter for the PPG members – it was therefore important
the Practice newsletter differed. Following discussion with the PRG it was
decided to commence a quarterly newsletter to inform patients of any changes
regarding services. The newsletter would be placed on the website and paper
copies would be available in the Surgeries. Patients would be notified when the
newsletter was available either by text or automatically via the website if they
had signed up to receive notifications. A copy of the newsletter was sent to the
PPG before being published for any comments.
The monthly and quarterly newsletter is helpful.
Please see Appendix B for copy of first newsletter
We have had continuous dialogue with the PPG – meetings held on
27.10.14, 24.11.14 and 2.2.15 re all the new initiatives that were agreed at
the beginning of the year. The PPG were consulted regarding action plans,
implementation of new initiatives and feedback once the new initiatives
had been introduced.
As a result of the survey we have not changed our opening times
Confirmation of opening times
 You can call the surgery on 01582 763961( Harpenden)
01582 832258 ( Wheathampstead) Monday – Friday 8am - 6.30pm
 The surgery reception is open Monday-Friday 8am - 6.00pm
 GP Consulting times as follows
HARPENDEN
GP
Dr Gibbs
Dr O’Hare
Dr Walker
Dr Ingram
Dr Goodwin
Dr Solomons
Dr Modi
MONDAY
AM
TUESDAY
-
AM/RW
PM
AM/PM
AM
AM
AM/PM
AM
AM/PM
WED
AM/PM
AM
AM
AM
AM
AM/KS
PM
PM
THURS
PM
AM/PM
FRIDAY
AM
AM/PM
AM/PM
PM
AM
AM/PM
AM
WHEATHAMPSTEAD
GP
Dr O’Hare
Dr Gilham
Dr Ingram
Dr Maruthainar
Dr Harding
Dr Modi
MONDAY
TUESDAY
PM
AM
AM
AM/PM
PM
AM
AM/PM
PM
WED
THURS
PM
PM
AM
AM
PM
FRIDAY
AM
AM/PM
AM/PM
PM
AM
 Outside of normal opening hours please call 111
Appendix A
Practice Demographic Population (Graph A)
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
Male
Female
Under
16
17-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65-74
75-80 Over 80 British
Irish
White &
White &
Black
Banglade Caribbea
Any
Black Indian Pakistani
African Chinese
shi
n
other
Caribbea
African
n
White
Gender
Patients 7914
8143
Mixed
Asian or Asian British
Age
3725
1116
1565
2416
2372
Black or Black
British
Chinese or other
Ethinicity
1899
1659
681
674
10282
269
38
29
384
10
48
39
106
250
4622
Practice Reference Group Population (Graph B)
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
Male Female Under 16 17-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65-74
75-80 Over 80 British
White &
White &
Black
Banglade Caribbea
Any
Black Indian Pakistani
Irish
African Chinese
shi
n
other
Caribbea
African
n
White
Gender
Patients 190
250
Mixed
Age
0
30
26
37
30
Asian or Asian British
Black or Black
British
Chinese or other
Ethinicity
37
155
100
23
420
0
Appendix B
The Village Surgery
NEWSLETTER January
2015
Welcome to the FIRST edition of our Practice Newsletter.
We hope to publish quarterly newsletters on the website.
WINTER PRESSURES
When the surgery is closed please call
your mobile phone -111
111
Put this number in
Every attendance at A & E costs at least £70. A & E Departments are for
patients who either suffer a serious accident or a life threatening emergency.
For any other complaint please ring 111 when the surgery is closed.
Our website has details of what to do when the surgery is closed.
20
FLU VACCINATIONS
We vaccinated over 3800 at risk patients during September – December. At 3
minutes per jab that is over 190 hours spent vaccinating.
We do not routinely send letters to the over 65’s due to the cost implications
– please put a note in your diary for September 2015 and either contact the
surgery for details of the 2015 flu clinics or look on our website
www.thevillagesurgeries.co.uk
PNEUMONIA VACCINATIONS
If you are 65 or over you are entitled to a free pneumonia vaccination. We
will be holding clinics during February and March – if you have not had this
vaccination please contact the surgery. In most cases you only need the
vaccination once.
APPOINTMENTS
Our automated telephone appointment booking system has proved very
popular with many of our patients. Patients can call any time – day or night
and are able to book, cancel or amend appointments with their usual GP and
blood tests at Harpenden Memorial Hospital.
Harpenden patients call 01582 763951 to use automated system or to
book an appointment via a receptionist
As from 2.2.15 the system will be available to Wheathampstead patients
Wheathampstead patients
To use the automated system – please call 01582 763951
To book an appointment via a receptionist – please call 01582 832258.
We would be very happy to receive any feedback regarding our new system.
GP CHANGES
We are very sad to announce that Dr Murphy will be leaving us on Friday 16
January – however she is leaving for a very happy reason – her baby is due
on 31st January – we are all looking forward to meeting her bump
Dr Walker will be reducing his commitments at the Village Surgery as from
Monday 26 January. He will work part time.
NEW ADDITIONS TO THE VILLAGE FAMILY
We are pleased to announce that two new GPs will be starting with us in
January
Dr Sheetal Purohit – who worked here during 2014 – will commence on 19
January
Dr Dave Creak will start on Thursday 29 January
Dr Purohit and Dr Creak will be looking after Dr Murphy’s patients and Dr
Walker’s patients whose surname begins with A – I until we recruit new
Partners – hopefully in June this year.
Finally a huge thank you to all our patients that dropped presents into
the surgery over the Christmas period.
They are all very much appreciated – even if they do lead to expanding
our waist lines!