Enter and view: Dr Joseph's Practice

Healthwatch Havering undertook an Enter and View visit to Dr Joseph's Practice in Collier Row on 1 June 2017. Overall, the practice was found to be clean, well maintained and providing a personal service to around 3,000 patients. Staff spoken to during the visit were positive about working at the practice and described a supportive team environment. 

Patients generally felt involved in decisions about their care and spoke positively about the reception staff. However, the main concern raised was difficulty obtaining appointments, with some patients reporting waits of several days or even one to two weeks for routine appointments. Patients also reported long waits for telephone calls to be answered and felt that more emergency appointments should be available.

Healthwatch also identified a number of issues relating to accessibility and patient information, including a lack of disabled access, absence of hand gel dispensers, unclear information about opening hours and limited promotion of the Patient Participation Group. There was also no evidence of a Friends and Family Test being carried out at the time of the visit. 

Overall, Healthwatch concluded that the practice was providing a satisfactory service but recommended improvements to accessibility, communication and appointment management. Following the visit, the practice reported that it had introduced additional reception support, improved disabled access, installed hand gel dispensers, updated information displays and carried out a Friends and Family survey.