505

Dear Patient,

This survey contains questions about three areas of the NHS: National changes to the NHS; Accident and Emergency visits; and the patient experience of the Choose and Book referral system. These areas were decided by the partners and staff of the medical centre and the members of the Patient Participation Group.

National Changes to the NHS
There has been a lot of publicity about the need to save money in the NHS. NHS England (a government body set up to manage the NHS) are consulting with patients and NHS staff on planned changes in their document Improving General Practice: A Call For Action http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/com-dev/igp-cta/

The document says that "general practice and wider primary care services face increasingly unsustainable pressures and that general practice wants and needs to transform the way it provides services to reflect these growing changes..we must take great care to build on the strengths of UK general practice".

Q1. Are you aware of the NHS England Consultation Document?

  28%
  71%
  1%

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Q2. NHS England have outlined the strengths of general practice. We need to understand which of these are most important to our patients.

Please tick the three elements which are most important to you

  76%
  33%
  36%
  40%
  5%
  33%
  51%
  15%
  8%
  3%

Q3. Which three of these services are the least important to you?

  14%
  29%
  19%
  21%
  52%
  10%
  14%
  16%
  31%
  72%

The following link will take you to the NHS England consultation survey where you can let the governement know what you you think http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/com-dev/igp-cta/

Accident and Emergency Visits

On an annual basis there are thousands of patients who visit A&E when their particular problem could have been more effectively and quickly treated by a different service. This causes huge pressures on A&E departments.

Q4. When you have a medical problem, where do you go first for information?

  5%
  1%
  6%
  81%
  0%
  3%
  4%

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Q5. Have you ever visited A&E within normal GP opening hours (8:00-6:30) in the last 5 years?

  26%
  72%
  2%

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Q6. What sort of problem did you attend with?

  12%
  10%
  5%
  73%

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Q7. What was the main reason you chose to visit A&E?

  25%
  0%
  2%
  73%

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Q8. Have you ever visited a Minor Injuries Unit (MIU)?

  15%
  80%
  5%

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Q9. If YES, were you then referred on to another service?

  3%
  4%
  3%
  7%
  83%

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Q10. Do you know what your local Minor Injuries Unit is able to treat and how to get to it?

  24%
  30%
  44%
  2%

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Q11. Where would you be most likely to look for that information?

  36%
  24%
  14%
  6%
  11%

The Choose and Book Referral System

Choose and Book is a national referral system which has now been in place for a number of years. When patients are referred by their GP they receive a letter listing the hospitals that are able to treat their particular problem and are asked to phone a booking number or use a website in order to make the appointment. The aim of the system is to enable patients to pick a time and location for their appointment which is convenient for them. Although it is not possible for Cheddar Medical Centre to change the national elements of the system, we are interested to learn if there is enough information available to patients to help them with this system and whether there is anything more the surgery could do to help.

Q12. Have you been referred to see a consultant in the past year using the Choose and Book system? You would have received a letter instructing you to ring a number or visit a website to make the appointment.

  47%
  51%
  2%

Results chart

Q13. Did you book using the telephone line or the website?

  42%
  5%
  1%
  52%

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Q14. Did you have any problems using the service? Please detail in the box below, specifying whether you used the telephone or website to book

  3%
  41%
  56%

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Q15. Which criteria are most important to you when choosing your appointment?

  19%
  37%
  30%
  9%
  2%

Q16. When you had the appointment, did you feel that you had seen the right specialist for your problem?

  55%
  1%
  4%
  40%

Results chart

Q17. Are there any changes you think the surgery could introduce to make the system easier to use?

  47%
  4%
  8%
  10%
  1%


To help us ensure we are getting a survey from a broad range of people, please tell us a few things about yourself:

Q18: Are you male or female?

  36%
  62%
  2%

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Q19: How old are you?

  0%
  2%
  3%
  3%
  7%
  12%
  40%
  24%
  4%

Results chart

Q20. How would you describe your ethnicity?

  96%
  0%
  0%
  0%
  0%
  0%
  1%
  3%

Results chart

Q21. How would you describe how often you come to the practice?

  25%
  52%
  15%
  8%

Results chart

Q22. If you represent any particular patient group as a carer or through your work, please specify below

  2%
  1%
  2%
  1%
  0%
  90%

Many thanks for taking the time to complete this survey.