What patients told us in March 2024

Posted by: supportymm - Posted on:

Local pharmacies open over Easter (1)

A big thank you to the 864 patients who recently took part in our latest patient survey.

You may remember we last ran a patient survey in October 2023 as we sought to find out what patients thought of our new digital offering and how this supported patient access to our services.

This month, we asked the same set of questions again to gather your views on:

  • How the practice is performing
  • Your understanding of the digital tools we use at Tudor Lodge
  • Your overall satisfaction.

Here’s what you told us in the recent survey:

Positive Feedback:

  • 3 out of 5 patients are still finding it “very easy” or “easy” to book an appointment with a GP when needed. Patients aged 55 to 64 find it the easiest to book an appointment.
  • Almost three-quarters of patients have now used the online appointment booking system.
  • More than half of patients (57 per cent) feel the waiting times on the telephone have reduced.
  • There was positive feedback from patients about using the NHS App, which has jumped from 55 per cent to 71 per cent use, and the online appointment booking system from 29 per cent to 57 per cent among patients.
  • 1 in 4 patients have also tried DOT, our online digital assistant, which helps patients with online setup and using the digital tools.

Negative feedback

  • Some patients experienced difficulties with internet connectivity and a lack of service at home.
  • Some patients reported it wasn’t always possible to get an appointment or a call back at a specific time to suit them.
  • And some patients commented they preferred to book appointments over the telephone and have appointments face to face – the more personal touch – over impersonal online interactions.

Room for improvement

Clearly, we are moving in the right direction, with many positives being reported by patients, but we also accept some ongoing negatives, which we are fully committed to addressing.

More choice with appointments

From April, we can offer patients set time frames and more choices around the doctor they see and the type of consultation they have, whether that’s phone or face-to-face.

We believe you deserve choice and flexibility, and we know the comfort and trust that comes from seeing the same doctor or clinician for ongoing care. From April, we are changing our appointment book so that when you contact us, you can let us know if you have a preferred clinician and a preferred type of consultation, such as telephone or face-to-face.

Please bear in mind though that getting an appointment with your preferred clinician might sometimes take a little longer due to availability. We shall look to publish the days our team are usually in on the website to help with this.

Quicker access to appointments

We are still seeing an unacceptable level of Did Not Attends (DNAs), where patients do not attend their appointments and don’t let us know to cancel it.

Unfortunately, this has a major knock-on effect on the number of patients we can see urgently on the same day. If we don’t know a patient is no longer coming, we can’t offer the appointment to somebody else.

We are now robustly imposing our strict 3-strikes policy as this is no longer fair to our team or other patients.

WIFI in the waiting room

It’s a small thing but it’s worth noting we have free WIFI available in the practice should any patients living locally wish to pop in and use it for managing their health or appointments.