PPG Report

Local Patient Participation Report for 2012/13

Spring Hill Medical Centre is a semi-rural teaching practice, covering Fillongley, Arley, Galley Common and all of the Nuneaton area, with a 10,000 patient list. Our practice includes, 3 partners, 2 salaried GP's, 1 registrar, 4 practice nurses and 1 health care assistant, who are all supported by our receptionist and administration staff.

Established in 2002, our patient participation group (PPG) has been successful in improving patient experience. The group decided that the minimum requirement of members were 5 (to be quorum). There is no maximum requirement of members as the PPG welcome any resident wishing to attend the meetings on a co—opted basis.

At present, there are 15 members. consisting of 3 males and 12 females. There are 4 members of the practice team who al so currently sit on the group. The group have invested in good communication tools to ensure that it is representative of its registered patients by means of posters and leaflets.

Age Distribution of the PPG
20 - 29	30 - 39	40 - 49	50 - 59	60 - 69	70 - 79	80 - 89
0	1	2	2	5	4	1

In January 2013 reception stall handed out the practice questionnaire to patients attending both Spring Hill and Galley Common (BRANCH) during the month of January / February 2013.

The PM noted at the meeting held on 28 February 2013 that the questionnaire was currently being distributed to patients up until the end of February 2013. The PPG did highlight that the telephone system was still the main priority and discussions took place at the meeting regarding certain incidences relating to this.

Following the survey in January/February 2013, the results would be distributed to the PPG at Aprils meeting. Please note that members and 1he practice could not make any dates in March 2013 to discuss the practice questionnaire. It has been a very difficult time for the practice as on 27 November 2012, the practice moved premises and into a purpose built medical centre with officially opening to the public 10 December 2012. The move has come with its teething problems like British telecom providing no telephones and Doctors/Nurses being moved to the branch surgery at Galley Common in order to maintain patient quality and care during this transit ion. The practice stall has worked tirelessly to ensure that patients receive the same quality and care within the new building . The website has had a complete makeover with "share your experience· email address added for patient to liaise with the surgery daily and when the surgery is not open to share their thoughts on how we could do things better. The practice regularly has stall briefing sessions for members of staff to discuss better ways on running the surgery and patient access. The results of this is having a mailbox on the secretaries phone line for patients to leave their name and number for the secretaries to contact them at no extra cost to the patients. The email address on the website has also proved popular for a patient wanting to contact the secretaries and the mailbox is emptied every morning with a response to the patient the same day or within 24 hours. The facilities at the new surgery including patients with special requirements are excellent and practice leaflets and communication materials in order to keep patients informed are regularly in reception and given out to patients or displayed within the waiting area.

The practice has also undertaken a Transport Survey' for patients to complete to ensure they can access the surgery either via foot, car, bike or public transport. The practice has also met with Arley Parish Council and approved a bus shelter to be erected on the side of the building.

Following the audit and comparing 2012 against 2013 the practice presented the following information, highlight specific areas:

Access to a doctor: Remained •good" with length of time in reception waiting to check in maintaining •excellent'.
Obtaining Prescriptions maintained ·excellent" with an increase in prescriptions ready on time.
Obtaining test results: Increased from ·very good" to "Excellent'. In March 2013, the practice listened to patients and introduced a main box for patients to leave their name and number if receptionists could not answer the telephone in 3 rings. The receptionists would then phone the patient back at a cost to the practice with the patients test results. This is proving very popular with the patients.
About the Staff: Although achieved 'excellent" with the helpfulness of reception staff increasing, information provided by other staff and the helpfulness of other staff is something which needs improvement on. The practice has increased its resource in certain areas of the practice and training new members of staff is necessary but sometimes can be frustrating for patients if they cannot get an answer straight away. The practice recognises this and has designated "training mentors" within the practice for certain new members to increase their knowledge.
The overall satisfaction for the services provided by Springhill Medical Centre were excellent however, the practice notes that issues such as the telephone system must be rectified via action plan as this Is an area for concern by both the practice and patients. The staff at Springhill Medical Centre will continue to ensure that every patients experience albeit via telephone, face to race or website is excellent and welcome any feedback via questionnaires, ·share your experience' (email address can be found on the website) suggestion box, letters and via PPG meetings.

We have had since we moved into the new building significant problems with the telephones. We have had a meeting with British Telecom and invested in a new automated telephone system, mailboxes and a gold service package where a British telecom engineer is on site within 4 hours. The telephones were reflected within the survey results and an action plan has been put in place to rectify this issue.

There is now more resource on reception than there ever has been before with the intension of improving quality within the reception area and due to the new building the attached pharmacy is now over the road, the practice Is working with the pharmacy on a weekly basis to maintain the same quality as it did when it was attached to the previous Springhill Surgery.

Please see attached the bar charts for both Springhill Medical Centre which is a representation of the 2013 survey results.

On 8 April 2013, the PM distributed the results of the 'improving the practice questionnaire'.

The Practice Manager proposed the following action plan to the PPG, at Aprils meeting:
Survey Finding	Agreed action	Action by who	Action/by when	Date Completed
Patients unhappy with telephone system	PM to produce action plan with agreement from PPG	Practice	New automated telephone 8 April system installed January 2013 2013 to make it easier for patients to access specific services. Automated system was updated February 2013 to incorporate a mail box for Secretaries for patients to leave their details instead of being held in a queue or to go back to reception and for the secretaries to ring them back at no cost to the patient Mailbox for test results was introduced February 2013 for patients to leave their details in order to be contacted by the surgery with their results so that they were not holding or having to ring back at their cost January 2013: Receptionists are to provide their name when answering the telephone to help patients March 2013: More resource has been sought in order to answer the volume of calls per day March 2013: Receptionists are to answer the telephones within 3 rings where possible Action to be completed by April 2013.	8 April 2013