The Wooda Surgery
Local Patient Participation Report
Date Published: March 2015
A description of the profile of the members of the Patient Participation Group (PPG):
Historically the Wooda Surgery PPG has been represented by Wooda Plus (previously named Wouldcare).
Wooda Plus are a volunteer organisation based at the Practice, providing support to patients of The
Wooda Surgery. Wooda Plus provides services such as transport to health appointments and a befriending
service to patients in need of this. The volunteers work hard to raise funds for the services they provide in
order to limit the costs passed onto the patients.
After discussions with the PPG and the Partnership last year, it was identified that the demand for the
services provided by the volunteer organisation had increased. The impact of the increase in demand
inevitably meant that priorities for the volunteers had changed and in order to maintain the priorities for
both the volunteer organisation and the PPG, we agreed that the arrangements for the PPG/Volunteer
organisation needed to be reviewed.
In October last year, the Practice met with The Wooda Plus committee and agreed that it was in the best
interests of the volunteer’s organisation and the PPG to disperse into two organisations. Several members
of Wooda plus opted to maintain their membership within the PPG and so it was agreed to re-constitute
the PPG in the new year and recruit new members to the group.
The group of 9 PPG members met for the first time in March this year.
The PPG & Practice demographics are as follows:
16-44 = 0 % (total practice population profile = 48.82 %)
45-54 years = 11.1% (total practice population profile = 14.1%)
55-64 years = 22.22 % (total practice population profile = 13.97%)
65-74 = 55.55% (total practice population profile = 12.99%)
75+ = 11.11% (total practice population profile = 10.06%)
Sex:
Male = 44.5 % (total practice population profile = 48.9%)
Female = 55.5 % (total practice population profile = 51.09 %)
Ethnicity:
White ethnic category = 100% (total recorded practice population profile = 97%)
There is a representation in the PPG of patients who are workers, parents, carers and the retired.
A description of what steps the Practice has taken to ensure that the PPG is representative of
its registered patients and where a category of patients is not represented and what steps
have been taken by the Practice in an attempt to engage with those patients:
Information about the PPG is available to patients in the Practice leaflet, on the Practice website and on
the media screen in the waiting room at the Practice. On completion of the NHS friends & family test,
patients are offered the opportunity to find out more information about the PPG and discuss with the
Practice Manager.
The Practice recognises that there is no representation of patients aged 16-44 within the PPG. The
Practice is engaging with the Patients Association in order to develop a strategy to recruit members of the
PPG from a more diverse patient representation.
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A description of how the Practice sought to obtain the views of its registered patients
Patients are able to provide feedback about the Practice through a number of sources.
NHS choices – patients can access the NHS choices website and leave feedback about the practice online.
Comments book – There is a comments book available on the Reception desk for patients to feedback any
comments about the Practice.
Informal feedback – Patients often give informal feedback to staff members at the Practice. This feedback
is documented within the clinical system.
Friends & Family Test – Friends & Family questionnaires are available in the waiting room and on the
Practice website.
The Practice review all of the feedback received through these sources at the weekly Management
meeting and any actions are acted on and discussed.
Complaints –All complaints are documented and reviewed on an annual basis and discussed with the
Management team and the PPG in order to identify any trends or areas for improvement.
A description of how the Practice sought to discuss the feedback with the PPG and Practice’s
action plan for the forth-coming year.
Feedback and complaints are discussed routinely with the PPG on an annual basis although more pressing
or immediate requirements are discussed at the next meeting, allowing for a more prompt resolution if
required.
The PPG met as a new group for the first time in March this year and discussed the priority areas for the
forthcoming year.
Action 1 – Develop constitution for the new PPG
The group agreed that in order to become a fully functional PPG there is some work to be done on the
constitution of the group. This includes developing and agreeing the terms of reference, agreeing the
ground rules for the meeting and electing roles for the group.
The group are currently reviewing some of the principles and guidance from the Patient Association and
will meet monthly whilst developing these principles to meet the needs of the PPG.
Action 2 – Carry out a waiting time audit
Patients have fed back to the Practice on 3 occasions over the past year that they feel they have waited
for unsatisfactory periods of time after checking in for their appointment.
Although the PPG did not feel that this was something there were personally dissatisfied with, they agreed
that it would be helpful to carry out an audit on waiting times to establish if it is necessary to carry out any
further action. Once completed, the audit will be discussed with the PPG and any further action
determined.
Action 3 – Become a distributor for food bank vouchers and to continue work on community support
projects and fundraising for health.
The Practice feels that it is important to recognise areas of deprivation within the community and give
support where possible. Following on from feedback received from the PPG, the Partners at the Practice
are now distributors of vouchers for the local food bank, this will provide support for patients in times of
acute crisis.
In addition to this, the Practice is looking to work throughout the year on projects in order to support
organisations such as the food bank and have commenced a “5p Friday” fund whereby each Friday,
patients and staff can donate 5p’s which will help to fund initiatives that will benefit our patient
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population and may have an overarching benefit to the wider community.
Amidst all of the uncertainty within the wider NHS, the Partnership, staff and PPG members feel that it Is
important to recognise how fundraising for health appeals, such as “wear it red day” for the British Heart
Foundation provides resources for research and potential benefit in the diagnosis and treatments of
health conditions. The Practice is committed to supporting fundraising for health appeals throughout the
forth coming year.
The Practice is currently working on a campaign to provide Easter eggs to the Bideford food bank. The
food bank provide basic food supplies to people during times of acute crisis, the eggs will provide a luxury
item in addition to the basics. To date we have 60 Easter eggs to donate.
The Practice has recently taken part in raising funds for The British Heart Foundation. Staff baked cakes
and biscuits to sell, donated money to “wear it red” and organised a raffle for patients and staff to take
part in. We received some positive feedback from patients and staff about our efforts in supporting the
“wear it red” campaign and we raised £152.
The Practice will be looking at how we can continue to support campaigns throughout the next year.
A summary of the progress made on actions for 2013- 2014
Action 1 – To review access to the surgery for same day and advanced booking.
The Practice took part in a survey with the Primary Care Foundation Trust. The survey involved an audit of
all practice appointments as well as appointments systems.
The results of the audit suggested that the Practice provide an appropriate number of appointments each
week for our patient population, however the consultation habits of our patients could suggest that
patients requests appointments more frequently than national statistics show.
The Practice regularly monitor, discuss and amend the organisation of the appointments. There are some
quite radical ideas nationally around how to get the best out of your appointment availability but this is
not something that the Practice feels necessary to invoke at this stage. Although the survey was
interesting and reassuring, it didn’t really give any magic solution for our Practice or the patients.
The Practice agreed with the PPG that the role that Pharmacies can play in reducing the pressure for GP
Practices and the new scheme that some Pharmacies are partaking in for diagnosis and treatment
(including prescribing of antibiotics) of some minor conditions could be utilised more by General Practice.
The Practice has agreed with the PPG to consider and discuss how we can promote this service more to
patients.
Action 2 – Continue to improve access to the surgery on the telephone throughout the whole day.
The Practice continues to monitor the telephone calls which are at an acceptable level for the
Receptionist’s available to answer the telephones throughout the day. We accept that there are peaks
and flows in the number of calls that we receive and review this on a day to day basis with the option of
sharing the telephone calls with administration staff when appropriate. There has been a definite
improvement in the number of calls answered since ceasing the repeat prescription line whereby patients
could request repeat prescriptions by telephone, which suggests an improvement in telephone access
through the main Reception line.
Some members of the PPG commented on the telephone call waiting system which allows calls to queue
rather than receive an engaged tone as a positive improvement.
Action 3 – Improve physical access to the Surgery.
The Practice is continuing to improve the disability access around the surgery. Progress has been made on
the fire door along the Dr’s corridor which is now held open magnetically. The door is connected to the
fire alarm so that when the alarm sounds, the door is released, this ensures that the fire safety of the
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building is not compromised. The Practice has been able to carry out these improvements due to a kind
donation from a patient.
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