Patient Survey Results 2008 – 09
Introduction
The 2008/09 Patient Survey, was undertaken using the agreed GPAQ questionnaire (Consultation version) and was carried out between September 2008 and February 2009. During this time our practice list size averaged 8717. This meant we needed a minimum of 218 completed questionnaires returned however, we actually received 248. As in previous years it has been quite difficult in obtaining the volumes we needed for the survey hence the long period of activity.
Summary of Findings 2008 – 09
Review of Results:
The previous year’s results are shown in brackets and red italics. Where appropriate, for comparison purposes, the National Benchmarks are shown in square brackets and in blue. To facilitate comparison with all the national benchmarks and last years results we have tabulated them further down this web page.
We comment on the areas more specifically as follows:
Question 2 – Receptionists
12% of patients (12%) taking part thought our Receptionists treatment was less than “Good” however no one rated them anything less than fair. 67% (62%) rated them as “Very Good” or “Excellent” with 88% rating reception as good or better. We have seen some changes in our Reception team over the last 12 months and have also changed some of their working procedures which we believe provides more time for them to look after our patient needs. We are therefore pleased to see the hoped for improvement from last year on this result. The patient Self Check In Touch screen continues to be popular and does help to ease the pressure on Reception at peak times which was proven on two occasions during the year when it was temporarily out of action. The result is an improvement against the national benchmark from last year albeit 1 point below. We hope to continue this improvement.
Question 3 – Opening Times
15% (14%) of patients rated the surgery hours as less than Good with 38% (35%) rating this as Very Good or Excellent. 85% [86%] felt opening times were Good or even better.
This result is very similar to last year which, in a way, is disappointing given that we now provide extended opening. However, it must be taken into account that this survey was started in September whereas we did not start extended opening until 3rd November 2008. Whilst the national survey last year was used to guide us on the type of extended opening our patients wanted, we also carried out our own survey via surgery and website questionnaire.
As a result we now provide extended opening for 2 evenings and alternate Saturday mornings. That said there would seem to be a need to revisit our communications on this as there were still some responses received in February that indicated a need for evening and weekend opening. We have used our website and displayed numerous posters and information all around the surgery providing patient details about the extended hours and have even placed an advertisement at the local railway station mentioning this fact for our commuter patients. We will therefore need to look at additional ways of communicating this although, that said, all extended sessions (with the exception of the bad weather period) have been fully booked.
Question 4 – Availability of a particular doctor
The results for being able to see a particular doctor this year the same as last year with 58% (58%) of respondents feeling our performance was “Good” or better. Overall, though, we fall just below the national benchmark on the whole category. We remain disappointed with this result but this may have been impacted by the loss of our very popular GP Retainer in August who had been with us for just under 2 years. There was a short delay in finding a replacement for her and we tend to find in these circumstances (as happened when two of our partners retired) our patients will revert to seeing doctors they have previously seen/know thus exacerbating what is already a difficult position for us. We are aware of the popularity of some doctors and the difficulty this creates for patients to find a suitable appointment with that doctor. We remain unsure how this can be resolved easily since we have had this issue for the last few years. We will continue to review the situation but take heart that our patient satisfaction for “any doctor” has improved again on last year and is comfortably in excess of the national benchmark.
Question 5 – Availability of any doctor
80% (80%) [69%] of patients responding rated our performance as “Good” or better which maintains the high standards seen last year. However, 5% (8%) of the scores rated “Poor” or worse so we have actually seen an improvement here. The changes to the nursing structure has enabled our Senior Nurse to see more Minor Illness patients as planned and we have achieved this result with the use of fewer locum sessions over the last 12 months. We expect a further improvement next year as the extended opening additional appointments take effect.
Question 7 (Waiting time at the practice)
The level of dissatisfaction has remained at last years level of 8% (patients who felt that the waiting times at the practice were “Poor” or worse). This contrasts to 60% (58%) [57%] of patients rating our performance as “Good” or better. We are pleased with another further increase in satisfaction on last year and also that we are performing better than the national benchmark. We will maintain our efforts to hopefully ensure, as a minimum, satisfaction levels remain at these levels.
Question 8 (Phoning through to the practice)
39% (38%) of responders felt the ability to get through to the practice on the telephone was only rated Fair or worse. Equally, 29% (29%) felt this was Very Good or Excellent. This result is about the same as last year’s and the plans for coping with the early morning calls have not have any impact. We are in the middle of bringing in some further changes to the call answering procedures in the surgery which only started this month when it was clear from the National survey that this was still an issue for our patients. We will monitor the impact these changes will have and, if there is still no improvement, will have to consider a full reorganisation of the practice structure to enable more staff to be available to answer the telephones. From the comments we did receive about the telephones, the majority related to first thing in the morning when the lines open. This will naturally always be a busy time and we will continue to encourage patients to make use of the online booking facility to avoid this and also help reduce the telephone traffic as well at this time. Consideration will be given to adjusting the timing of the release of the on the day appointments so some could be made available the evening before the morning rush. We have now put a message on the telephone system asking patients ringing for results not to ring until later in the day and hopefully patients will start getting used to this timing. That said, the national benchmark for telephone satisfaction is 59% whereas our results for “Fair” or better come out at 90% an improvement of 2% on last year.
77% (78%) of those commenting liked the telephone service where they could speak to a doctor. This is a reduction in last year’s good improvement but is still high.
Question 11 (Ability to understand the problem after seeing the Doctor)
Only 10% (11%) felt they understood the same or less than before their visit which was again a further improvement on last year’s result. Also 63% of patients felt they understood their problem much more after their visit to the surgery. Our results show 77% (75%) of patients were able to understand the problem more after their visit compared to the national benchmark of 69%. These particular results are a reflection of the high standards of doctoring a patient receives at Milton House Surgery.
Comparison Table:
Question Number |
Brief Description of rating |
2009 Score |
2008 Score |
National Benchmark |
2 |
Receptionists |
76 |
75 |
77 |
3 |
Opening Hours |
65 |
65 |
67 |
4 |
How quickly a specific Dr was seen |
57 |
57 |
60 |
5 |
How quickly any Dr seen |
72 |
71 |
69 |
7 |
Waiting time to see the Dr |
59 |
57 |
57 |
8a |
Ability to get through on the telephones |
56 |
56 |
59 |
8b |
Ability to speak to a Dr on the telephone |
67 |
68 |
61 |
9 |
How often you can see your usual Dr |
68 |
69 |
69 |
10a |
How thoroughly Dr asks about symptons |
87 |
87 |
81 |
10b |
How well Dr listens |
89 |
89 |
84 |
10c |
How well Dr puts you at ease |
90 |
89 |
84 |
10d |
How much you are involved in care decision |
87 |
86 |
81 |
10e |
How well Dr explains treatment |
89 |
89 |
83 |
10f |
Amount of time Dr spends with you |
86 |
86 |
80 |
10g |
How patient Dr is with your worries |
90 |
89 |
84 |
10h |
Drs caring and concern for you |
89 |
89 |
84 |
11a |
How well you understood problem after seeing the Dr |
77 |
76 |
69 |
11b |
Your ability to cope with the problem after seeing the Dr |
75 |
76 |
66 |
11c |
Your ability to keep healthy after seeing the Dr |
71 |
71 |
62 |
Patient comments
We have been very pleased by the considerable amount of positive comments our patients have written which included a lot of personal “thank you’s” for individual experiences. Comments we received included:
On the other side of the coin we have received comments from some patients unhappy they are unable to get an appointment with the doctor of their choice (our popular GP) or because they can’t get through at 8.30 a.m. These are consistent with results detailed above.
Once you have had chance to read this summary you may like to provide comment so please click here to send an e-mail to Geoff Smith, Business Manager
Summary of Findings 2007 – 08
Review of Results:
The previous year’s results are shown in brackets and red italics. Where appropriate, for comparison purposes, the National Benchmarks for 2005/06 are shown in square brackets and in blue.
Question 2 - Receptionists
12% of patients (9%) of the votes thought our Receptionists treatment was less than “Good” and 62% (63%) rated them as “Very Good” or “Excellent”. 88% [77%] rated reception as good or better. We believe the patient Self Check In Touch screen has helped to ease the pressure on Reception at peak times and staff changes during the year are now settling down so, whilst there has been little change to last year, we hope to see an improvement next year. The result remains far higher than the national benchmark which is very pleasing and an accurate reflection of the reception staff we have
Question 3 – Opening Times
14% (27%) of patients rated the surgery hours as less than Good with 35% (25%) rating this as Very Good or Excellent. 86% [67%] felt opening times were Good or even better.
This is a very interesting result in the light of the Government’s current extended opening hours proposal as the figures show patients are more satisfied this year than last and the figure is well in excess of the national benchmark.
The responders who made comment on this question were again split on their views as the following figures show:
| Weekend opening wanted | 37% |
| No change needed | 33% |
| Evening opening | 24% |
| Other times wanted | 6% |
Again, patients are mainly looking for appointments on a Saturday and we feel this reflects both their desire for doctor/surgery continuity and also their lack of confidence in the out of hours service currently provided. The Government have just procured a vote on a DES being introduced for 2008/09 inviting surgeries to extend their opening hours. We will give this due consideration when the full details are made available.
Question 4 – Availability of a particular doctor
The results for being able to see a particular doctor this year are not so good with a reduced number, 58% (67%) of respondents feeling our performance was “Good” or better. We are disappointed with this result having made changes to doctors’ working days following the retirements of two partners to ensure a even spread throughout the week. This was particularly so with availability of female doctors. We are aware of the popularity of some doctors and the difficulty this creates for patients to find a suitable appointment with that doctor. We are unsure how this can be resolved easily since we have had this issue for the last few years. We will continue to review the situation but take heart that our patient satisfaction for “any doctor” has improved markedly on last year. We did, however exceed the national benchmark, [60%], as this figure includes the “satisfied” group of patients as well.
Question 5 – Availability of any doctor
80% (76%) [69%] of patients rated our performance as “Good” or better which is a notable improvement on last year. However, 8% (4%) of the scores rated “Poor” or worse so we have a complete contrast here in the results. The additional changes to the nursing structure to enable our Senior Nurse to see more Minor Illness patients is only now about to come into effect following the departure of one of our nurses last September and the delay in finding an HCA as a replacement. We are confident this will soon start to impact the doctors’ availability and hope to see this reflected in next year’s results.
Question 7 (Waiting time at the practice)
Our perseverance with this area and the waiting room reminder about the length of appointment seems to be having an effect this year as the level of dissatisfaction has improved again this year. 8% (19%) of patients felt that the waiting times at the practice were “Poor” or worse. This contrasts to 58% (54%) [57%], of patients rating our performance as “Good” or better. We will maintain our efforts to hopefully ensure satisfaction levels do not revert during the next 12 months.
Question 8 (Phoning through to the practice)
38% (33%) of responders felt the ability to get through to the practice on the telephone was only rated Fair or worse. Equally, 29% (31%) felt this was Very Good or Excellent. This result is slightly worse than last year’s and the plans for coping with the early morning calls have not have any impact. We therefore intend to have a full review of the surgery’s call answering procedures which we believe need attention and alternative means of handling calls when receptionists are otherwise engaged to answer the telephone. That said, the national benchmark for telephone satisfaction is 59% whereas our results for “Fair” or better come out at 86%.
78% (87%) of those commenting liked the telephone service where they could speak to a doctor. This is a reduction in last year’s good improvement but is still high.
Question 11 (Ability to understand the problem after seeing the Doctor)
Only 11% (14%) felt they understood the same or less than before their visit which was a further improvement on last year’s result. Also 63% of patients felt they understood their problem much more after their visit to the surgery. Our results show 75% of patients were able to understand the problem more after their visit compared to the national benchmark of 69%. These particular results are encouraging and we will strive to make further improvements during the next 12 months.
Once you have had chance to read this summary you may like to provide comment so please click here to send an e-mail to Geoff Smith, Business Manager