Stockwell Lodge Medical Centre - Helping to Improve Access and The Patient Experience
What We Did
As a result of the CQC inspection and rating, a variety of health bodies were involved in providing different aspects of support to Stockwell Lodge Medical Centre. Our involvement was to focus on helping the practice improve ‘patient experience’ and 'access'.
As part of this work, we supported a quality visit by East and North Hertfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (ENHCCG). The visit took place on the 24th November 2017.
Our role during the visit was to conduct in-depth questionnaires with patients at the practice, which provided a snapshot of the patient experience at Stockwell Lodge. The questionnaire focused on the following areas:
- The patient experience of making an appointment
- The patient experience of dealing with practice staff
- The quality of information and communication
- The patient experience of providing feedback – compliment, concern or complaint
To support the questionnaire, we also left a sealed comment box at the practice to hear from patients who attended the practice between the 27.11.17 – 22.12.17. The comment box encouraged and provided patients the opportunity to feedback anonymously, outside of the visit.
In total 46 patients provided feedback.
What We Found
- Patients highlighted frustration with the process of booking next day appointments or an appointment within the next couple days.
- The booking method used by patients was not always the patient’s preferred method. Patients who went into the surgery to book appointments generally would have preferred to phone. The principal reason for not phoning the surgery was the long delays for calls to be answered.
- All but one patient noted difficulty with booking appointments by phone.
- The online booking system was not popular with the patients. They raised concerns about the number and type of appointments available online compared to if you spoke to someone at the practice, the usability of the system and time of day new appointments are added.
- There were mixed views about privacy at the reception area, as well as whether patients minded being overheard when discussing matters with receptionists.
- Although Stockwell Lodge does not currently offer weekend appointments, most patients we spoke to said they would use the surgery at the weekend if they offered this service.
- Most comments about staff were positive. Patients noted a change in reception staff and a general improvement compared to a year ago. Some patients raised concerns about reception staff and GPs not always being welcoming, caring or demonstrating listening.
- On average patients scored the practice 5 out of 10 for quality of information and communication.
What happened next?
We made nine recommendations to the practice encouraging them to improve their:
- Appointment booking and phone systems
- Customer Service and Communication
- Reception area
- Feedback and Learning
Read the full report below to see how the Practice responded to these recommendations and what they plan to do to adress the issues raised in the report.
Thank you for the comprehensive document. As a practice, we appreciate your input to improvement in the quality of care delivery to our patients. As you probably are aware, we have since had another CQC visit on 18th January 2018, showing improvement compared to the report following May 2017. Your contribution has helped in achieving these in no small measures.
Read the full report, and the responses to our recommendations here
If you require this report in another format, please get in touch.
