Creech St Michael Medical Centre - Patient Participation Group.
Patients’
experience when
visiting a doctor or
nurse.
An Analysis of questionnaires in January 2013.
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Creech St Michael Medical CentreJanuary 2013
The 2nd survey undertaken by the Patient Participation Group –
Patients’ experience when seeing a doctor or nurse.
Findings in brief:-
A very high percentage of patients had very good opinions of their
overall experience with the doctor or the nurse the last time they
visited. The same percentage of patients visiting the GP surgery said
their general experience had been very good. Some patients reported
difficulties in obtaining an appointment and a significant number
were concerned about their appointment running very late when they
attended.
ContentsIntroduction
How good was –
1. The last GP appointment?
2. The last nurse appointment?
3.
4.
5.
6.
Are you managing your health?
What was your overall experience?
General comments made by patients.
The action plan following the findings.
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Introduction
The Patient Participation Group discussed and agreed with The Doctors
and The Medical Centre Manager the areas to be covered by the patient
survey. Taking into account the Care Quality Commission’s focus on
outcomes and the content of other recent national GP patient surveys it
was agreed that this survey would focus on the patients' experience and
opinion when visiting the Doctors and the Nurses for an appointment.
Having obtained questionnaires from other NHS agencies Anne Clare,
Medical Centre Manager consulted with the Doctors and Nurses and with
the Patient Participation Group. Following this the PPG compiled its own
questionnaire, based on the examples, and this was used throughout the
survey, partly by patients filling their own in and partly through
discussion with PPG members.
The information obtained has been gained from evidence taken from 120
completed questionnaires and discussions with patients in the waiting
room. Four members of the PPG spent 25 hours administering and
discussing with patients from 14th until 25th January 2013.
Detailed findings: 1. How good was the last GP appointment?
A very high percentage of patients had good or very good opinions of
their overall experience with the doctor the last time they visited.
There were a very small percentage of patients who are not satisfied
with some of the aspects and we encourage them to discuss this with
their doctor.
In detail, 98% of patients recorded that doctors were good or very good at
giving enough time to them during the consultation. A similar percentage
of patients said that doctors were good or very good at listening to them.
A very high percentage, about 95%, of patients said they thought that
their doctor knew enough about their condition and their treatment. About
85% of patients thought their doctors were good at explaining the tests
and the treatments that were necessary and a similar number of patients
thought they were properly involved in the decisions about their care. The
same percentage of patients said that doctors answered the questions they
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asked. When being asked if doctors treated them with care and concern
the vast majority of patients said doctors were good or very good at this.
Over 90% of patients said they had confidence and trust in the GP they
spoke to.
2. How good was the last Nurse appointment?
A very high percentage of patients had good or very good opinions of
their overall experience with the nurse the last time they visited. We
encourage the small percentage of patients who were not satisfied
with certain aspects when last visiting their nurse, to come to discuss
their concerns.
A very high percentage thought the nurse gave enough time and listened
to them carefully. Over 90% of patients thought their nurse knew enough
about their condition and treatment and explained the tests and treatment
well. A similar percentage felt they were involved in the decisions about
their care and that the nurse answered the questions they asked. Patients
said that nurses treated them with care and concern and the significant
majority had confidence and trust in the nurse they spoke to.
3. Patients managing their own health.
Most patients visiting the doctor or nurse said they had a long-standing
health condition. Those who needed help from local services or
organisations to manage their long-term health conditions said that they
had enough support. About half of those attending for appointments
stated they did not need any further support. The significant majority,
95%, were confident that they could manage their own health without
further help.
4. The overall experience of patients when visiting their GP
surgery.
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About 78% of patients visiting the GP surgery said the experience had
been very good. 20% described it as fairly good with a very small
percentage dissatisfied.
80% of patients said they would definitely recommend their GP surgery
to someone who had just moved to the local area and a further 12% said
they would probably recommend it. Six people were not sure and three
others (2%) would not recommend the surgery.
5. General comments made by patients when completing the
questionnaire.
Of the 120 questionnaires completed 45 had additional written comments.
17 of the comments were about patients’ experience with doctors, nurses
and staff when attending for an appointment. 24 comments were about
lateness of appointments and the appointment system.
In addition to the very high percentage of satisfaction, ten patients wrote
supportive comments about their treatment by doctors and nurses. One
wrote, " I could not have better help from the doctors and nurses than I
had. They are considerate and care for me. We are fortunate to have such
a conscientious and caring medical centre with the staff we have”.
Another commented, " Have always been treated with care and courtesy”,
and another said,” Courteous receptionists, with professional manner.
Friendly receptionist and helpful doctors put me at ease. Feel important.
Feel very lucky to have this as my practice. Only been here 18 months,
and feel confident in this practice too! (Many thanks!!)".
There were patients with varied concernsOne patient commented, "Don't like new reception desk-difficult to see
over and talk", and another said, "It is so formal and distant in the waiting
area, like a bus station-not friendly. When you check-in they don't look at
you in the eye-look, at the screen and everyone can hear what you say.
Makes me cross".
Of the comments about lateness of appointments and the appointment
system, these four statements were typical: “Difficult at times to get an
appointment when convenient e.g. not available when you have to fit
around work. Try to get follow-up appointment with Dr to discuss results
and not able to book a time although 4 days in advance". . .."I attend the
surgery say once a year and my experience is excellent, but for other
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family members it is not good but only in as much as there are no doctors
available, no appointments and the "emergency" appointment is full
within 3 minutes of the lines opening. The Doctors are amazing though".
…,"I have been waiting over an hour since my appointment time. This is
not acceptable".…"Not enough doctors. This surgery is under a lot of
pressure. A lack of doctors’ appointments. It is increasingly difficult to
get an appointment and doctors are frequently overrunning and the last
appointment I had to wait 45 minutes. If this continues at least a coffee
machine please!"
6. The action plan following the findings.
Patients’ overall experience.
The PPG consider it important to communicate the very good
findings of patients’ experience when last visiting their doctor or
nurse. They want these very good results to be remembered when
also considering the improvements that need to be made.
Appointments
The Practice appreciates that it is sometimes difficult to get an
appointment because of the high demand. The GPs are committed
to giving you the best service possible and have carried out a
review of GP and nurse appointments to ensure that the number of
available appointments is maximised. The Surgery does offer
above the number of appointments it is required to do so in line
with other surgeries and in line with the patient list size.
GP appointments have been streamlined to provide a consistent
service across the week with both GPs following the same
appointment pattern. Each surgery has the same number of routine
and urgent appointments with urgent appointments accounting for
one third of the total appointments available on any one day.
Nurse sessions have been split to provide a more efficient use of
time. A blood clinic is now held each Thursday to enable more
patients to be seen.
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Receptionists have received further training in the handling of
requests for appointments with the aim of ensuring that all requests
are handled consistently. Patients requiring a routine appointment
with a GP will be allocated the next available routine appointment.
This will generally be within the next 3 to 4 days. If a GP is on
leave the wait may be longer.
Urgent appointments are only allocated on the same day. When all
available appointments have been taken the receptionist will
discuss with you the best option. This may be a telephone
consultation or an appointment in the next few days.
Waiting times
GPs are aware that waiting times can sometimes be long and want
to make every effort to reduce them as much as possible.
Appointments are scheduled for only 10 minutes each and
therefore in cases of emergency times can overrun.
To help reduce waiting times GP sessions are to be adjusted from
March by rescheduling paperwork and other business to later in the
day. In addition receptionists will now keep patients informed of
the length of waiting times on a regular basis whenever they
exceed 15 minutes.
We have also sought to ask patients to remember that appointment
times are for only 10 minutes and that in general only one problem
can be dealt with. Notices have been put up in the waiting room
and a notice has also been printed on the reverse of the
appointment reminder slip. We would kindly ask for patient’s cooperation in helping to reduce waiting times.
Whilst the GPs will do everything they can to keep to appointment
times there will always be emergencies and unforeseen
circumstances which must be dealt with. Patient care is paramount
and where necessary patients will have the time they need to
ensure they receive the full care needed.
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