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User Group
The user group exists to work with the practice to continually improve the service on offer. We met with them in February 2007 and have drawn up an action plan as below. The group at present comprises 10 patients with a particular interest in improving Audley Mills Surgery. Most of the members have been patients of the surgery for many years, so they've seen the service develop hugely from the early days. We would like the group to be more representative of younger people so do consider whether this might be for you.
AUDLEY MILLS USER GROUP MEETING
Minutes of Meeting 16th September 2009
(awaited)
Minutes of Meeting 4th February 2009
- Tour of new building – the group was shown round Audley Mills Medical Education Centre – almost complete but unfurnished!
- Compared with previous years there is little overall change.
- Satisfaction with phoning through to surgery has deteriorated further – despite having extra people answering phones in the mornings.
- Satisfaction with hours of access has improved – reflecting satisfaction at the Extended Opening Hours now provided.
The results were discussed further as follows.
Brian picked up on the poor satisfaction with telephone access and asked if even more lines and personnel could be made available during the busy morning periods. Alan wondered if this problem was in part due to ‘panic buying’ of a limited commodity and simply dealing with this by increasing phone access would only mean that the available appointments were booked even sooner, which might lead even more people to attend the surgery in person at 7am to book appointments. Increasing access needs to go hand in hand with a further education programme encouraging patients that they do not need to book appointments early in the morning if they can book for an appointment 1-2 weeks in advance.
Sydney made the observation that the current rush to book appointments in the early morning was biased towards ambulant patients who can physically attend surgery at 7am to book their appointment which was unfair to the less mobile.
We will look at the time at which all the book on day appointments get fully booked (i.e. have they all gone by 9am?) to see if this supports the ‘panic-buying’ hypothesis.
Brian noted that overall satisfaction with quality of care remains high – in the comments section, 41 individuals took the time to praise the quality of care while 7 made negative comments regarding the care they had experienced.
Barbara highlighted the problem with being put on hold for a specific call option – if that phone is not manned then the patient has to hang up and phone again in order to select a different option. She had had difficulty obtaining telephone advice – on one occasion a patient with an allergic reaction had not been advised to ring 999 if they deteriorated. On another occasion Pauline had been told that to speak to a Dr the receptionist ‘had to set-up a task…he might phone you back’ – this is a receptionist training issue and we need a more consistent approach to our delivery of telephone advice, whether from receptionist, doctor or nurse.
Lisa spoke about having a system of telephone consultations which could be booked into (rather than the on-call Dr dealing with them all as ‘tasks’) we will again look into this way of working.
Brian pointed out that in the comments section there were 13 comments regarding rudeness of receptionists. While all acknowledge that they do a difficult job and dealing with the public is not always easy, we accept that this level of complaint is higher than we would like it to be.
Patients waiting times for consultations – it was again agreed that a wait of up to 30 minutes is sometimes to be expected but if a Dr is running more than 30 minutes late it would be helpful to put a sign up warning the patients that ‘Dr X is running late – please call at reception’.
Brian also picked up on a few comments regarding cleanliness of the toilets. We will consider identifying a member of staff to undertake regular toilet checks throughout the day but recognise that it only takes one inconsiderate user for toilets to be left in an unhygienic state and we will still rely on patients reporting problems when they occur.
- Other Suggestions from the Group
It was agreed that the current waiting time for phlebotomy was unacceptably long (often well over a week) – we hope to re-provide phlebotomy in house now that we have extra space and are negotiating this service with the hospital trust.
Choose and Book was discussed – the view was that the booking side is helpful, but for the majority of people the choice element adds further unnecessary confusion. Our ‘choice’ (as doctors and users) would be that Southend Hospital provides comprehensive high quality care across all specialties.
Practice Based Commissioning – are there any plans to provide new services through this commissioning route? Eye procedures were mentioned as was audiology services as possible areas of interest to the user group.
- Audley Mills Medical Education Centre – awaiting furniture, imminent opening, negotiations with acute trust and other providers regarding other service provision from this facility. The conference room is available to hire to other community groups. There were concerns about potential confusion for patients knowing where their appointment would be held. Good clear signs are necessary. The user group would like to be involved in advising and approving the signage and access for the new building.
- SystmOnline – a new way to order repeat prescriptions, book appointments, or ask email questions of the practice. Patients need a login and password to access this service. It was agreed that it would be worthwhile asking patients for a simple confirmatory ID before we issue the login and password, to prevent breaches of confidentiality. The service will be advertised by posters, leaflets, the website etc. The hope is that the service use will grow gradually as more patients register for it. There are some small staff-training issues before we ‘go-live’ with this service – patients can register when the system is advertised on the website frontpage (soon!)
- Public Education Meetings – the conference room will be used to hold public education meetings and debates on topics of wide interest. The first meeting on ‘Statins and Statistics’ is booked for April. It was suggested that Diabetes would be a good topic for a future meeting.
- Next Meeting – It was agreed we would meet 6-monthly rather than annually, meetings without a member of the practice staff had been tried but were frustrating and not considered worthwhile.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING – WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 16 th at 7pm
Actions arising:
- A further education programme encouraging patients that they do not need to rush to book appointments early in the morning if they can book for an appointment 1-2 weeks in advance
- Analyse time of day that book-on-day appointments get filled – this acts as a measure of our success in discouraging ‘panic buying’ as well as demonstrating easier access to book appointments if it becomes later in the day
- Telephone advice and Telephone consultations – we need to look at this and provide a more consistent service – perhaps using booked telephone consultations with doctors
- Rudeness and Receptionists – we will again endeavour to address this through our regular staff training
- Notify patients if a Dr is running more than 30minutes late
- Identify a member of staff to become a ‘toilet monitor’
- Continue to press for in-house phlebotomy service
- Involve the user group in the signage for the new building
- Go live with SystmOne and advertise it appropriately
- Proceed with public educational meetings
DATE OF NEXT MEETING – WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 16 th at 7pm
PUBLIC FORUM -27th FEBRUARY 2008
Rayleigh Cricket Club
MINUTES
Present : Dr. Kerry, Steve Doherty, Brian Dawbarn, Sydney Smith, Barbara Dunmore, George Dunmore, Sylvia & Brian Kersey plus 7 other patients
BD introduced himself, Dr Kerry and Steve Doherty and explained that this meeting was arranged so that the patients of Audley Mills Surgery could have a chance to comment on the results of the GPAQ (General Practice Assessment Questionnaire) which had been completed by nearly 500 patients over a two month period.
AK then gave a presentation, starting with the comment that the overall results were good and covered the following points :
Improvements
- Phoning through to Practice
- Satisfaction with receptionists
- Overall satisfaction with Practice
Not as good
- Satisfaction with opening hours
- Satisfaction with waiting times at Practice
- Doctor quality points (listening, putting at ease, time spent, patience, caring)
Positive comments
- The standards are very high
- Doctors are always concerned and understanding
- Comprehensive range of services available
- Service shows continual improvement
- You can be seen on the same day you ring (6 comments praising appointment system)
- The diabetic clinic care is excellent
- My doctor is superb ( 16 comments praising individual doctors)
- You have the best doctors in the service (14 comments praising all doctors)
Negative comments
- Some doctors are better than others (10 comments)
- Just the booking of appointments (22 comments)
- Would like longer hours (17 comments)
- Receptionist’s manner (12 comments)
- Waiting times
- Would be good if blood tests could be done on the spot
- Telephone access
- The Practice should not charge for forms to be signed
There then followed a question and answer session where the following points were raised;
- Problems with booking appointments at the Rayleigh Clinic for blood tests as well as the problem of arranging visits. It was commented that the service was very good once the appointment was made, but there was often a delay before being seen.
- A patient had experienced difficulty making an appointment with a nurse for ear syringing, despite being able to give a week’s notice.
- How would the Surgery cope with a large increase in demand if, for example there was an epidemic. AK said that the GPs could be flexible, possibly with open surgeries, if necessary.
- A patient commented on the excellent service given by NHS Direct.
- Several patients were concerned about access to records. SD said that at the moment, no Outside Agency could see their records, and if any information was requested, it would only be given with the patient’s consent. However, he shared the concern about future shared information.
- A patient said that the GPs deserved to have time off
- Receptionists were not a particular problem
- It was accepted that there could be longer waiting times if patients wanted to see a particular doctor
- There was a request for a well-man clinic
- The issue of notifying patients in the Waiting Room if a doctor is running late was discussed. SD said that it was not practical to update patients for each doctor on a regular basis. It was then suggested that a message be put up asking patients to report to reception if a doctor was running late and he agreed to try this.
- There was a discussion about patients not turning up for appointments. AK said that there was now a text number to help patients advise of cancellations.
- The question of telephone access to GPs was discussed. AK said that obviously GPs could not take calls during surgery, but they did return calls if messages were left.
- One patient felt that it should be made clear when they were seeing a Registrar
- It was felt that patients often didn’t take in everything during a consultation. AK agreed and said that GPs tried to bear this in mind.
AK then continued with a further presentation on GPs’ thoughts about the current political atmosphere and, on a more positive note, announced that it is likely that within the next few months, the Practice may be able to lease an adjacent building which would enable the doctors to provide new services as well as improve the current facilities.
BD closed the meeting with thanks to all who had attended.
These minutes can be downloaded as a PDF here...
AMUG Minutes of Meeting - 27th February 2008
A specially recorded MP3 of the presentation is HERE
Which runs with this PowerPoint
Brian Dawbarn chairs the group and can be contacted here:
brian@bandsdawbarn.worldonline.co.uk
Food for thought:
Last year we offered over 50,000 doctor appointments (that’s not counting practice nurses, HCAs etc.) This is 10% more than the previous year. The doctors also conducted nearly 2000 home visits, 40% up on 2004/5.
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