Sunny Meed Surgery
Virtual Patient Representative Group Report
March, 2015
Introduction
Sunny Meed is a 3 partner, 1 salaried and 1 retainer GP Practice on Heathside
Road, Woking; with a branch surgery at Goldsworth Park Health Centre. We
are an accredited Training Practice for the training of those Doctors (GP
Registrars) intending to become General Practitioners. GP Registrars are fully
qualified Doctors who are likely to have a lot of experience of hospital
medicine.
Prerequisite of Enhanced Service – Develop/Maintain a Patient Participation
Group (PPG)
Does the practice have a PPG? Yes/No
Yes – We have a ‘virtual’ patient participation group.
Method of engagement with PPG – Face to face, email, other?
By email, via our website and through questionnaire which we make available
for patients to complete when they visit the surgery.
Currently we have 9,107 registered patients and 573 of those are Patient
Participation Group members. They are broken down into the following sex,
age and ethnicity groups:
%
Practice
PRG
%
Practice
PRG
%
Practice
PRG
<16
8
1
Male
51
40
17-24
14
6
25-34
15
32
35-44
16
21
Female
49
60
45-54
11
14
55-64
8
11
65-74
8
10
>75
21
5
White Mixed Asian/Asian Black/African/Caribbean/ Other/
British
Black British
Unknown
52
51
2
4
12
20
1
3
33
23
Current Access Arrangements
Sunny Meed Surgery is open from 08:00 until 18:30 Monday to Friday, with
extended hours Nurses clinics until 20:30 on Monday and Thursday and
extended hours Doctors clinics rotating days throughout the month.
Patients are able to book appointment online via EMIS Access, over the new
‘multi-optioned’ telephone system or in person. Three different types of
appointments are available: ‘On The Day’ for patients urgently needing to see a
Doctor or Nurse, ‘Triage/Phone Consultation’ for those needing a discussion
with the GP or ‘Default’ which are pre-bookable up to three weeks in advance.
Describe the steps taken to ensure that the PPG is representative of the
practice population in terms of gender, age and ethnic background and other
members of the practice population.
Sunny Meed Surgery started collecting patient details for inclusion on our PPG
in 2011 and has since continued to do so; inviting all patients to become
actively involved. All patients registering with the practice are given the
opportunity to join the PPG (information is included in the New Patient
Registration Pack) and we regularly hold ‘recruitment drives’ to increase our
PPG numbers Using:






‘Slips’ on chairs and surfaces in the waiting room.
The patient display boards.
The waiting room display screen.
The website noticeboard and ‘patient involvement’ page.
Invited speaker evenings
Email addresses of patients who may not have already signed up.
The size of the PPG allows us to ‘weight’ responses if it appears that there may
be a specific group that holds differing views to the majority.
Are there any specific characteristics of your practice population which means
that other groups should be included in the PPG? E.g. large student population,
significant number of jobseekers, large numbers of nursing homes or a LGBT
community?
There are no specific characteristics that would affect the group membership.
Our practice profile reflects the norm for our area – and has a mainly ‘White’
and ‘Asian’ ethnic background.
Review of Patient Feedback
Outline the sources of feedback that were reviewed during the year
We used a variety of sources throughout the year: NHS Choices, GP Patient
Survey, ‘I Want Great Care’ Friends and Family Survey (since September 2014),
website feedback forms, complaints and comments received and electronic
and paper based surveys.
How frequently were these reviewed with the PPG?
1. Feedback from both NHS choices and I want Great Care is available
throughout the year to all patients including those registered to the PPG
and we advertise this fact in the waiting room area, on line and via
emails to the PPG – we review all feedback weekly and post replies
(including information about use for in-house training purposes) to
online reviews in a timely fashion.
2. The main survey findings (using GP Survey results-January 2015) and
outcome priority areas is formally posted via e-mail to the PPG members
and advertised in the reception area on an annual basis. The PPG has the
opportunity to:
a. comment on the findings
b. influence the key areas that the practice will focus on over the
next year
c. be kept informed as to the outcomes of priority areas
3. Patients registered to the surgery PPG are also contacted via e-mail at
quarterly intervals to invite them to education/information meetings
with invited speakers at Sunny Meed at which feedback is also discussed
(dates include: 15.07.14 – ‘Making The Most Of Your Medicines’ by Nipa
Patel, 09.09.14 – ASPH by Emma Jackson & 07.10.14 – CCG by Jo
Gravier).
This meant that the priority areas were developed with and agreed with
significant patient involvement (by the PPG).
Action Plan Priority Areas and Implementation
Priority area 1
Description of priority area
Increase patient awareness and use of online: appointment booking, repeat
prescription requests and medical record and results viewing.
What actions were taken to address the priority?
 Used the booking-in screen to highlight the service availability.
 Put an ‘ad’ on our ‘envisage’ waiting room screen to promote the
service.
 Handed out leaflets to patients when they came into the practice.
 Included information on the service in New Patient Registration packs.
 Improved the information available on the website about the service
and activated online registration for the service.
 Emailed/phoned/wrote to patients aged 16 years whose parents have
online access to invite them to register for their own pin access
(enabling them to view medical records/results).
 Sent SMS text messages to patients to inform them of test results and
that they can be directly viewed via online access.
Results of actions and impact on patients and carers (including how
publicised)?
The impact of our actions over the year can be demonstrated by the figures
below:
Patients registered for EMIS access:
March 2014 – 8% of patients registered
March 2015 – 13% of patients registered
These figures reflect an increase in 5% from which we infer increased use of
online access services. We intend to increase the range of available online
appointments for patients to book including chronic disease management
clinics.
These results and action plan have been shared with the PPG and are available
online for all patients to view. They have formed part of the most recent
survey. We have requested feedback from the group to determine whether
this area continues to be a priority area for next year.
Priority area 2
Description of priority area
Improve patient phone access.
What actions were taken to address the priority?
 Installed a new digital phone system for both the main and branch
surgeries (October 2014).
 Set up a single phone number for patients to call which has been
advertised in the surgery and on the website (bypass number still
available for health professionals/allied staff).
 A call divert system is now in place to direct calls to the most
appropriate staff members straight away (appointments/enquiries/
prescriptions/branch surgery) thereby avoiding the need for patients to
be kept on hold as transfers are made.
 The incoming line automatically diverts calls to phones that are free
ensuring that patients do not receive a ‘busy tone’ and avoid the need
for them to redial.
 More staff now answer the phone lines at peak periods (as
demonstrated by data from Primary Care Foundation).
 All staff members have been requested to answer incoming calls in a
standardised way, introducing the surgery and the
 We monitor feedback weekly from patients as phone access has always
been a priority area.
 New surgery website introduced to the public in September 2014 which
has increased online facilities for patients (new to 2014 included: access
to patient records and results, travel forms/vaccination information,
links to website/patient resources) which may reduce the number of
calls to reception.
Results of actions and impact on patients and carers (including how
publicised)?
Data from the GP Survey relating to ‘ease of getting through to someone at the
GPs surgery on the phone’:
%
July 2014
Jan’ 2015
Very Easy
10
9
Fairly Easy Not Very Easy Not At All Easy Hadn’t Tried
48
28
14
0
44
29
16
2
We feel that this data does not fully reflect the impact on improved patient
access to the surgery by phone since the surgery phone improvements were
only made in October 2014. We understand that the GP Survey results
published in January 2015, although the latest available, are collected from
surveys sent to patients in Jan-March 2014 and July-Sept 2014.
We intend, with agreement from the PPG, to continue to review and develop
improvements in this area and again review results from future GP Surveys.
We will additionally seek data from the phone company in respect to: patients
call waiting times, missed calls, volume of incoming calls to assess ‘peak times’
with a view to staffing adjustments to cover these periods including actively
seeking patient feedback.
These results and action plan have been shared with the PPG and are available
online for all patients to view. They have formed part of the most recent
survey. We have requested feedback from the group to determine whether
this area continues to be a priority area for next year.
Priority area 3
Description of priority area
Improve patients’ overall experience of making an appointment.
What actions were taken to address the priority?
 All doctors now have phone consultations at the end of each morning
surgery to ensure that patients are able to formally book a phone follow
up appointment with a specific doctor to improve continuity of care as
highlighted by the Primary Care Foundation.
 April 2014 introduced extended hours for both access to doctors and
nurses after 6.30pm.
 Saturday flu clinics were offered by 3 doctors and 3 nurses during the
vaccination season.
 The number of pre-booked appointments has been increased (adding
capacity).
 All pre-booked appointments are opened up 3 weeks ahead of time (no
24/48 hours access slots).
 All pre-booked appointments are visible to patients booking online to
ensure that they have the same service as those patients that may
phone for an appointment.
 We have met on a one-to-one basis with the Primary Care Foundation
(February 2015) to evaluate GP Survey feedback and review current
appointment system improvements.
Results of actions and impact on patients and carers (including how
publicised)?
The impact of our actions over the year can be demonstrated by the figures
below obtained from GP survey results:
%
July 2014
Jan’ 2015
Very Good Fairly Good Neither Good Fairly Poor Hadn’t Tried
Nor Poor
33
41
11
11
4
34
40
14
10
2
We feel that this data does not fully reflect the impact on improved patient
experience of making an appointment since the surgery appointment system
improvements have only been implemented over the course of the last few
months. We understand that the GP Survey results published in January 2015,
although the latest available, are collected from surveys sent to patients in JanMarch 2014 and July-Sept 2014.
We hope to have further data collected over the forthcoming months by the
Primary Care Foundation to review how our actions above have impacted on
their review of our performance in this area of ‘patient experience of making
an appointment’.
We also intend to start collecting regular in-house data about ‘time to be seen’
by a ‘doctor of your choice’ as this has been shown to have an impact on
patient satisfaction.
These results and action plan have been shared with the PPG and are available
online for all patients to view. They have formed part of the most recent
survey. We have requested feedback from the group to determine whether
this area continues to be a priority area for next year.
Progress on previous years
If you have participated in this scheme for more than one year, outline progress
made on issues raised in the previous year(s).
Priority areas 2013-14
1. Install a new phone system – completed October 2014.
2. Online booking awareness – completed with in-house surgery campaign
(developed further in the 2014 – 15 year as increased access to patient
records & results via a new website September 2014).
3. Saturday opening – completed in part as we introduced Saturday ‘flu’
clinics (October – November 2014) where patients could pre-book or
walk in for flu/pneumovac/shingles vaccinations. Introduced extended
evening hours during the week.
4. Implement PRG for patients not on e-mail – completed June 2014 by
improving awareness of ‘patient involvement’ among all patients
(waiting room campaigns, messages on repeat prescription slips) and
inviting them to attend a number of invited speaker evening meetings
held at the Surgery.
PPG Sign Off
Report signed off by PPG? Yes / No
Our PPG is a virtual one so there is no one individual available to sign the
report off. The PPG has, however, been involved in developing the action plan
for 2014-15 and for 2015-16.
How has the practice engaged with the PPG?
By email
How has the practice made efforts to engage with seldom heard groups in the
practice population?
We advertise the group widely both within the practice and on our website. All
new patients are informed about the group and are invited to join it.
Has the practice received patient and carer feedback from a variety of sources?
Yes. We have sought feedback from:
GP Survey (MORI), I Want Great Care ‘Friends and Family Survey’, NHS Choices
comments, website online comments, feedback slips in the surgery, complaints
and verbal feedback.
Was the PPG involved in the agreement of the priority areas and the resulting
action plan?
Yes:
 The PPG agreed to use results from the GP Survey (MORI) and set out
the priority areas to address in this 2014-15 cycle.
 The action plan was then shared with the PPG via e-mail in March 2015
and agreed.
How has the service offered to patients and carers improved as a result of the
implementation of the action plan?
Please see the responses highlighted in section 3 above.
Do you have any other comments about the PPG or the practice in relation to
this area of work?
No