Enter and View: Pontesbury Medical Practice

Healthwatch Shropshire undertook an Enter and View visit to Pontesbury Medical Practice on 11 December 2019.  They spoke to 4 staff and seven patients.

The purpose of the visit was to see how they are offering extended access appointments, if they are advertising them in the surgery and if they are making patients aware of them when they ask.

Healthwatch did not see any information about Extended Access Appointments on the noticeboards in the waiting area. The website has some information on Extended Access Appointments. Only one patient was aware of Extended Access Appointments. One patient said an extended access Appointment would have been useful if it had been offered.

All the staff told Healthwatch they were able to offer patients the appointments they needed, but all the patients said it is difficult to get a same day appointment.

The practice does not routinely offer or promote evening or weekend appointments. Six months ago the practice introduced out of hours GP telephone calls.  Whilst the Practice Manager told Healthwatch that the surgery does not regularly use locum GPs, patients said they usually see a different doctor, usually a Locum.

The report contains 6 recommendations and a response from the provider.