Queen Square Medical Practice

Practice Survey 2016

We value your views. Approximately 130 patients so far have joined our virtual’ Patient Representation Group (PRG). They receive copies of newsletters by email, and once or twice a year we will also send out an electronic survey or questionnaire. The questions in this survey are based on suggestions from the Patient Representation Group (PRG).

Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. We will publish the results of the survey on our website and in newsletters and agree an action plan with the Patient Representation Group. You can join the group by registering online at www.queensquare.org – follow the ‘Have your say’ link.

To help us analyse the results please indicate the following:

Are you:

Age:

Normal surgery:

Ethnicity

White

Mixed

Asian or Asian British

Black or Black British

Chinese or Other

Appointment System

As we have explained at Patient Group meetings we try to strike a balance between allowing patients to book ahead whilst trying to make sure we have appointments available on the day.

At present we allow approximately 2/3rds of GP appointments to be booked up to 4 weeks ahead with the rest available on the day. In a typical week we offer over 1,000 GP appointments.

We also allow booking ahead up to 2 months with the nurses and health care assistant. In a typical week we offer over 700 nurse and HCA appointments

We allow a proportion of the appointments to be booked online via our website www.queensquare.org

The website contains lots of information about the practice, including links to patient information and self-help sites, options for booking appointments and ordering repeat prescriptions.

Q1. How satisfied are you with the present appointment system at the surgery?

If not satisfied, what changes would you like?

Q2. How do you normally book your appointment to see a doctor or nurse at the surgery?

Q3. Which of the following methods would you prefer to use to book an appointment at the surgery?

Q4. We currently send text reminders the day before to patients' mobile phones giving details of their appointment at the surgery. Do you think we should continue with text reminders?

Opening Hours

Q5. How satisfied are you with the opening hours at the surgery?

If dissatisfied what changed would you like to see?

Practice Size & Mergers

With a falling share of NHS income, more demands and regulations GP practices, especially smaller ones, are struggling and some local practices have already merged (e.g. Meadowside/ Strawberry Gardens have merged with Coastal in Morecambe /Heysham and other Morecambe practices may join them), whilst others (most Lancaster practices) are in talks about merging.

The government/DoH is putting pressure on practices to work together and/or merge (e.g. The new GP contract due in April 2017 will be offered to practices or groups of practices serving at least 30,000! Queen Square has about 13,600 patients below this figure but well above the ~7,300 patient average list size for a UK GP practice [Pulse Jul’15]). We feel we are viable as an individual practice though we recognise that on larger schemes such as 8am-8pm 7 day opening we will need to work in co-operation with other practices.

Q6. The practice reserves the right to keep all options open but is interested in what YOU the patients thinks we should do. Which would you prefer?

Reason for your answer/comments:

Telephone Access

Over the last 6 years our telephone system has received well in excess of 2.2million calls!!

The practice has 10 lines at the main surgery number (843333) and 2 lines at our Caton branch surgery. At busy times such as first thing in the morning we have all reception and admin staff answering telephones.

Q7. How satisfied are you at getting through on the telephones?

If dissatisfied, what problems have you experienced?

When you book an appointment the reception staff may, on behalf of the GPs, ask for some information regarding your attendance at the Practice so your needs can be dealt with in the most appropriate way. This is to avoid staff having to ask patients to ring back at 8.00 a.m. the next day, as we appreciate that this can be frustrating.

Q8a. How satisfied are you with the receptionist asking you for this additional information?

If dissatisfied, what problems have your experienced?

Q8b. How satisfied are you with the information provided to you by the receptionists?

Waiting Times

Appointments with the GP or practice nurse are generally 10 minutes. We put catch up slots in to try to avoid keeping patients waiting but sometimes surgeries can overrun, especially if patients raise multiple problems. We ask patients to only raise one problem per appointment. If you feel you need more than the 10 minutes allocated, please ask for a double appointment.

Q9. Were you aware that you can ask for a double appointment?

Q10. How satisfied are you with surgeries running to time?

If dissatisfied, what problems have your experienced?

Information, Communication & Patient Representation

A number of services are available via the practice website www.queensquare.org

• Booking appointments
• ordering repeat prescriptions; (you will need to register for these service via Patient Access)
• viewing a summary of your medical record and results
• links to self-help information;
• to receive newsletters via email and
• to join our ‘virtual’ Patient Representation Group (PRG).

Q11a. What specific information would you like the surgery to share with you regarding future plans?

Q11b. How would you prefer to receive this information?

Q12. Please indicate your overall experience with the practice?

Considering the way your answered the overall satisfaction question above please could you tell us why you answered as you did?

Any other comments your would like to make?

*THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO COMPLETE THIS SURVEY. YOUR VIEWS ARE VERY IMPORTMANT TO US*