LINDFIELD MEDICAL CENTRE PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP REPORT MARCH 2013

lindfield medical centre patient participation group report march 2013 thank you to all our patients who responded to our pati

LINDFIELD MEDICAL CENTRE
PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP REPORT
MARCH 2013
Thank you to all our patients who responded to our patient survey
either on line or in our surgery. We collected over 250 responses and
were very gratified to receive positive replies to our questions and
some very helpful comments.
A few facts and figures about us:
We now have seven GP partners here at Lindfield – three female and
four male – with three working full time and four part time. We
currently employ four practice nurses, one health care assistant and
twenty administrative staff working in a variety of roles.
The surgery is open from 8am to 6.30pm Mondays to Fridays and
appointments can be made by telephoning or attending the surgery in
person.
We offer extended opening hours from 7am Monday and Friday mornings
and from 6.30pm to 7pm Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. These
appointments are pre-bookable but we will also see patients for
immediate and necessary treatment.
A few facts and figures about you, the patients:
AGE
FEMALE
MALE
TOTAL
Under 5
298
309
607
6-16 years
664
746
1410
17-35 years
894
974
1868
36-55 years
1537
1585
3122
56-75 years
1495
1375
2870
Over 76
778
521
1299
TOTAL
5666
5510
11176
Although our patient numbers have remained much the same since last
year, the number of 6-16 year olds has dropped but the 17-55 year
range has increased which is possibly a reflection of the new housing
in the area.
The Patient Participation Group (PPG):
There are currently seven PPG members: 1 female and 6 males with the
following age profile:
25-35 years 1 member
36-55 years 1 member
56-70 years 4 members
71+ 1 member
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the PPG
for their time and input in carrying out the survey and also
discussing the results and helping us to decide how we could improve
our services to you the patients.
Representativeness of PPG members:
We accept that our PPG membership is not currently representative of
our patient database and we will endeavour to promote our PPG and
recruit more members particularly women during the coming year. To do
this we plan to advertise the PPG group in the surgery,on our website
and by sending emails to patients who have provided their email
addresses when registering with us.
If you would be interested in giving us a little of your time then
please contact our Practice Manager for further details
Agreeing the patient survey:
The PPG met in September and decided what questions to ask in the
patient survey. It was decided to keep some of the patient
satisfaction type questions the same as last year to see if there had
been any marked change up or down. Also we extended on the use of the
website questions that we included last year by asking patients if
they had looked at the website and if so used the on line repeat
prescription request facility. We also welcomed any comments about
these new initiatives.
Obtaining your views:
We have continued to actively seek to obtain email addresses for our
patients and now ask for these when new patients register and also
existing patients when they attend the surgery. We therefore decided
to approach patients via their email addresses to ask them to complete
our survey online and also asked patients who attended the surgery to
complete a paper version. Last year we targeted patients when they
attended for the flu clinics so this year we handed out questionnaires
during normal surgery hours therefore collecting the views of a wide
variety of patients.
These paper results were then input into the online survey in order to
obtain one set of results. This year we used the patient survey
facility within our website in order to save patients having to link
into another website.
Discussing the survey results:
Once we had reached our target number of surveys the online survey was
closed and the results downloaded from the website along with any
comments that had been added by the participants.
Unfortunately the PPG were unable to physically meet again due to a
couple of members taking extended overseas trips but the results were
circulated and comments made and received via email.
PPG post-survey discussion (via email):
When comparing our results with last year, we scored better in three
areas, i.e. getting through to the surgery on the phone, getting an
urgent appointment on the same day and being able to book appointments
far enough in advance.
We had last year considered adding more options to the greetings
message when telephoning the surgery but the PPG were not in favour.
However, this problem does seem to have eased a bit although we have
no actual explanation why but this is something we will continue to
monitor.
We now operate a ‘sit and wait’ urgent appointment system from 5.30pm
every evening and this seems to have improved our urgent appointment
access.
The use of our website and online repeat prescription request facility
was encouraging and we now have 1081 patients registered to use this
facility. We were also very pleased that all the comments we received
about the website were extremely complimentary and all found the site
helpful and easy to use. In the last twelve months the website has
been visited 53,729 times.
As last year we are still looking at online appointment booking and a
touch screen for booking in. However, since putting the survey
together we have been informed that our clinical computer system will
no longer be supported after October 2013 and therefore during the
summer we will be migrating all our patient records to another system.
We will therefore be delaying any further developments of this kind
until after this project.
On the whole the PPG felt we had received a very good survey response
with favourable results and many complementary comments.
Survey results:
Are shown at the end of this report or the full report with comments
can be viewed on our website www.lindfieldmedicalcentre.co.uk and
clicking on Survey Results (right hand column of home page).
Action points:
Publicise the results of the survey on our website.
Have paper copies of this report available at the front desk.
Await installation of new clinical computer system and then
investigate further:
a) on line appointment booking facility
b) self check in screen for waiting room
c) blood pressure machine for patients to use in waiting room
Publicise PPG and try to encourage other patients to join thereby
getting new ideas for further developments and improvements to our
service.
Lindfield Medical Centre
Patient Survey 2012
Number of Responses: 250
Patient Survey 2012
Do you feel you are treated with respect and dignity when in the
surgery?
ALWAYS 92%
USUALLY 7%
NEVER 0%
No response 1%

Can you get through to the surgery on the telephone fairly easily?
ALWAYS 28%
USUALLY 67%
NEVER 3%
NOT APPLICABLE 0%
No response 2%

Are the receptionists as helpful as you think they should be?
ALWAYS 79%
USUALLY 20%
NEVER 0%
No response 1%

How many days do you usually have to wait to get an urgent appointment
with a doctor?
SAME DAY 68%
NEXT DAY 18%
TWO DAYS 3%
LONGER 5%
No response 6%

If booking an appointment in advance, are you able to book far enough
into the future?
ALWAYS 55%
USUALLY 41%
NEVER 0%
No response 4%

Do you normally see your GP of choice?
ALWAYS 48%
USUALLY 48%
NEVER 1%
No response 3%

When you have an appointment with a doctor do you feel he/she spends
enough time dealing with your problem?
ALWAYS 82%
USUALLY 14%
NEVER 0%
No response 4%

Do you feel you are given enough information about your
treatment/diagnosis when you attend for your appointment?
ALWAYS 79%
USUALLY 19%
NEVER 0%
No response 2%

Have you looked at our website at www.lindfieldmedicalcentre.co.uk
YES 48%
NO 50%
No response 2%

Have you used the on-line repeat prescription facility via our
website?
YES 32%
NO 66%
No response 2%

If you answered 'yes' to the above question, did you find it:
VERY EASY TO USE 25%
EASY TO USE 6%
TOO DIFFICULT TO USE 0%
No response 69%

In order to make sure we have received the views of a representative
group of patients it would be helpful if you would also answer the
following questions:
Your gender?
MALE 43%
FEMALE 53%
No response 4%

Your age?
16-34 6%
35-54 18%
55-64 21%
65-74 34%
75-84 17%
85+ 2%
No response 2%

Do you consider yourself to have a disability?
YES 15%
NO 83%
No response 2%

Do you suffer from a long term condition, i.e. diabetes, heart
problems, etc
YES 46%
NO 52%
No response 2%

Do you care for a sick relative?
YES 10%
NO 87%
No response 3%