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March 7, 2008
News from Church Walk Surgery - Spring 08
In November 2007 we conducted our annual patient satisfaction survey. A big thank you to everyone who took the trouble to fill in the questionnaires which were handed out to all patients attending for a doctor's appointment during that particular week. We depend on feedback from our patients in order to make plans for future developments. We have now finished analysing the survey and have also formulated a development plan for the coming year.
The survey once again showed that most patients are very happy with the level of service received but there are a number of issues that have arisen. These mainly relate to surgery opening hours and problems with hospital appointments.
We will, in future, be doing "glucose tolerance" testing at the surgery. This is a special blood test for patients who may have early diabetes. This test has previously been performed at the hospital laboratory but there is a significant waiting time for it to be performed. By doing the test at the surgery it can be done much quicker and is more convenient for patients. The practice will bear the additional cost of carrying out these tests.
Our practice nurse, Julia Mannion, has already started doing home visits to elderly housebound patients for annual check-ups that are required for certain chronic diseases. This should help to promote the well-being of such patients.
We are looking into the possibility of having a television installed in the waiting room which will provide a messaging and information service.
The survey indicated that satisfaction with current surgery opening hours is above the national average. Nevertheless there is some demand for additional hours, in particular at weekends and weekday evenings. Unfortunately we are unable to make any commitment to extending opening hours at the present time because, at the time of writing this article, the BMA and the Department of Health are still in negotiation as to how this could be funded.
Although we carry out a survey once a year we are always happy to receive comments from patients or their carers at any time.
Finally we are concerned about the gradual introduction of private companies into the NHS to deliver certain services. The government have decided to introduce “polyclinics" into all areas which will be run by private companies. Whereas such clinics may be beneficial to under- doctored inner-city areas we feel that they could de-stabilise small practices in rural areas. Do you want to see "Tesco value Doc" or do you want to retain traditional general practice? If you share our concerns please write to our local MP.
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