You said, We did
In February 2021 we conducted a patient satisfaction survey. A reminder of the results can be found here https://www.adelaidemedicalcentre.co.uk/2021/02/27/2021-patient-satisfaction-survey-results/
The common themes drawn from this survey, that required investigation, were as follows. We wish to provide you with an update on how we have/ plan to improve these.
Insufficient parking
We have recently purchased 6 additional car parking spaces offsite but near to the surgery, which we have allocated to our staff in order to free up bays at the Practice for patient parking. We will be creating 2 additional spaces onsite by converting a small grassed area into parking bays. We will stagger appointment times/ clinics to spread activity across the working day rather than have peak times. Further to this we will be installing a bike shed and have encouraged staff to travel to work by other means.
- Long queuing waits to get through on the phone
We have installed 4 additional telephone lines into the Practice. This will at least, more times than not, claim you a place in the queue rather than just hearing an engaged tone. We have recruited 2 new additional receptionists since our take over in September 20. We have looked at call data to inform us where peak points arise and map workload prioritises around this. We are opening up more bookable appointments online and offer eConsult 24/7 as another means of contact into the surgery.
We urge patients to do their bit too. Peak times are between 08:00 – 10:00 and 12:00 – 14:00. It’s best to avoid these times if you can. We have surges of phone calls when media news stories are released. From time to time we may send you communications regarding these topics to advise you of next steps. Please follow these instructions and do not call the Practice.
- Patients wanting to book more appointments online
It is very difficult for us to open up online appointment bookings in a safe and effective manner for most of our services. It is best that you explain your symptoms to our receptionists so that they can best direct your call to the appropriate clinician, book you the right amount of time and give any pre consultation advice needed. Where we try to Make Every Contact Count (MECC) we often adjust timings or try to bundle reviews to reduce the amount of patient repeat visits to the surgery. We are also constrained by limited characters to correctly title all appointments to ensure they are clearly defined to reduce inappropriate bookings.
We have added a few new online appointment booking clinics but these MUST ONLY BE BOOKED ON INVITE. Child imms, Cervical screening, Phlebotomy, NHS Health checks.
- Harder to get face to face appointments during COVID
We triage all patients by phone first and if non COVID19 symptomatic we offer face to face appointments if both parties (patient and doctor) felt that to be appropriate/necessary. Most consultations can be completed over the phone just as safely/ accurately without the need to come in. Reduced face to face appointments helps us with our COVID social distancing measures, car parking, patient inconvenience of waiting for clinicians who may run late. Please note it is not the Receptionists decision to provide you with a face to face or not. This discussion/ request should be made to the doctor when they call you.
We hope that patients are content with the progress/ plans that we have implemented/ agreed to date in relation to patient satisfaction improvement requests made.
Many thanks
AMC Partners