Patient Participation Group Meeting June 2016
For confidentiality, names of those attending have been left off this document.
1. Introduction to the practice….brief update on staffing and changes / structures.
Explained about staffing with Julie Francies taking over as the main nurse and Nurse Winnie Chiu
now doing Minor Illness clinic on Mon, Weds & Fri each week, to take pressure off the doctor,
enabling him/her to focus on patients with more serious conditions.
2. Introduction and update on Friends and Family
Review of results and comments.
Explained what we are doing with Friends and Family…..results of surveys done each month are
summarised in a sheet (see enclosed) with feedback from patients and my comments/actions.
This sheet is then attached to the practice website for all patients to see.
3. Results of GP Patient survey found online.
What the practice does best:
91% of respondents say the last GP they saw was good at giving them enough time.
92% of respondents say the last GP they saw or spoke to was good at listening to them.
100% of respondents had confidence and trust in the last nurse they saw or spoke to.
What this practice could improve:
72% of respondents were able to get an appointment to see or speak to someone the last time they
tried.
65% of respondents describe their experience of making an appointment as good.
Talked through the main issues, being difficulty in getting appointments when wanted (whether
same day or ahead) and what the practice is doing to address this problem. Introduction of Minor
Illness clinics, introducing additional waiting list for staff to add patients to, which then goes to duty
doctor (one for urgent same day appointments and another for future appointments). Doctor will
review and take appropriate action to find slots for patients. The second main issue is that
appointment schedule regularly runs late. This is caused by patients coming with issues that cannot
be dealt with in the allocated time (10 mins) and in some cases because patients want to discuss
several issues in one appointment, which is not practicable.
Action: Mrs S suggested that we create a sheet for Reception staff to use to take down details of
patient name, age, issue and contact details, so that doctor can triage the issues in importance
and arrange either telephone or face to face appointment that day, or when suitable.
Feedback: This has been introduced and proved useful, although it is rare these days that a
patient cannot get an appointment for that same day.
Action: Suggestion that we could be more pro-active if doctor runs behind late, to contact patients
warning them in advance so they don’t necessarily need to be there at original time.
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Valley Green, Woodhall Farm, Hemel Hempstead, HP2 7RJ
Tel: 01442 261 805. Fax 01442 261 750 Email: [email protected]
Feedback: We have been actively contacting patients if the doctor runs late and this seems to
work well on the rare occasion when the wait time is excessive.
What does the practice need to do to address issues....comments and experiences requested (what
issues to members of the group feel should be addressed).
Discussion about patient experiences….difficulty in calling in at 9am or 12pm to get appointments
/ problem not being able to get free appointment ahead except after 2 weeks / experiences of
surgery running late. Mr G B said that he was very happy with the time taken in an appointment
by Dr Mirza when required, but appreciated that this could cause a delay for other patients.
4. Information re likely CQC visit in the next few months. What they look at:
Are they safe? , Are they effective? , Are they caring? , Are they responsive? , Are they well led?
How do we deal with the various groups? Older people, people with long term conditions, families,
children and young people, working age people, vulnerable people, people with poor mental health
(incl. dementia).
We have two care homes that we work with – Queensway House (residential) and Westbrook
House (Learning Disabilities).
Explanation of what we are doing in our preparation for a likely CQC (Care Quality Commission)
visit in the next few months…examples are updating protocols, ensuring at all staff are
knowledgeable about what to do in an emergency, safeguarding issues, etc.
5. Facilities / environment.
Comments re building set up. Mr GB referred to the difficulty of walking to the main entrance
because of the slope from the car park. Agreed that this was an issue, but that it would be very
difficult to solve the problem, but that it should be looked at.
6. Comments re anything that could be changed or improved.
 Suggestion that patients who had not been able to get an appointment be called later on
to see how they were doing, to make the patient feel more valued.
We try to follow up all patients where this is felt to be beneficial.
 Suggestion that we look at our start times and maybe one member of staff come in earlier
so that patients could call up before 9am to see if they could get an appointment.
This is being looked at as a possibility, to enable appointments to be made and triaged.
 Suggestion that patients should be made more aware of the facility to see patients after
hours (late evening surgery).
This is quoted on our web site.
 Discussion re possibility of starting a Saturday morning surgery…..explained that we had
done this on occasion, but there were financial issues in adding this to our existing surgery
appointments (pay for GP, Receptionist, etc).
Not possible under present circumstances (cost and time constraints).
 Discussed whether the access to the pharmacy could be improved. David explained that
we probably wouldn’t be able to do anything to allow access to the adjacent car park, as
this wasn’t our land and that most patients not walking to the surgery would drive to the
pharmacy after their appointment anyway.
Not feasible and not deemed to be sufficiently valuable.
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Valley Green, Woodhall Farm, Hemel Hempstead, HP2 7RJ
Tel: 01442 261 805. Fax 01442 261 750 Email: [email protected]
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Discussed patients registering for online access to order prescriptions and revealed that
not all patients were aware of the facility to send prescriptions electronically to the
pharmacy of their choice.
Staff are making patients aware of this.
Valley Green, Woodhall Farm, Hemel Hempstead, HP2 7RJ
Tel: 01442 261 805. Fax 01442 261 750 Email: [email protected]