Enter and View: Waterside Medical Centre

Healthwatch Warwickshire did an announced Enter and View to Waterside Medical Centre, a purpose-built modern building, on 18th May 2015. There was free on-site parking for 37 cars with 5 disabled bays. The internal of the building was very good, clean and tidy.

The Healthwatch team found the surgery met most of their observational criteria. There was not much privacy at reception for the patients, but there was a side room that can be used. The hearing loop can be turned on if needed.

The questionnaire asked the patients attending the surgery about appointments, access, parking, signage, staff attitudes, cleanliness and the quality of care amongst other things. Almost all the respondents found it to be clean, while 46 out of 56 respondents found the overall care, treatment and service to be good. 4 people found the punctuality of appointments to be poor, “I have sat and waited for 40 minutes.”

“The surgery could improve the waiting times but I don’t know if it is because they need more GPs or there are too many patients.”

The reports makes the following recommendations:

• Surgery to advertise opening hours so that patients are aware what these are. This was discussed with the Practice Manager on the day of the visit.

• Informing patients on the day of any delays which may impact their appointment, especially when delays are likely to be longer than those displayed on the electronic check in.

• The surgery to look into the concerns raised by the patients in respect of the appointment booking system.

The surgery responded with a few points of clarification and actions that they plan to take.