Patient experience report 2020/2021 Quarter Two
Download (PDF 1.35 MB)Summary of report content
Healthwatch Ealing reports on the patient feedback it gathered during Q2 2020/2021 (July to September). During this period it gathered 1,000 reviews for health and social care services in Ealing.
Overall, the distribution of positive (76%), neutral (6%), and negative (18%) reviews indicates that the majority of individuals were happy with the services that they used during this time.
The key findings from GP service feedback were largely positive with most patients reporting a good experience. However, analysis indicates that there are still significant improvements to be made in the attitudes of members of staff and whether they are suitable to carry out the task that is being asked of them (administrative staff included). In addition, patients still found it a struggle to book appointments during this quarter, despite the ‘virtual by default’ approach to primary care. These findings may contribute to the lack of support some patients reported during this quarter, however, given the context of the COVID-19 pandemic these findings must be interpreted with caution.
The key findings from the feedback for Ealing Hospital were that patients were happy with the level of treatment and care that they received with a particular focus on the professionalism of staff and their overall attitudes and behaviour. Reviews indicated that there are still some improvements to be made regarding the amount of time that individuals have to wait for their appointment while they are at the hospital, however this may be a result of the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic.
With regard to other services (Dentists, Opticians and Pharmacies), service users were generally happy with the services that they were provided with, highlighting efficiency, friendly members of staff and, on the whole, good access to services. However there is still room for improvement in these areas.
In conjunction with findings from the analysis on GP surgery reviews, this indicates that staff in primary care services are one of the main sources of negative feedback for health and social care services in Ealing. While further training and development could be one potential solution, it is likely that these issues have been exacerbated by the current pandemic climate. Crucially, it is clear that more needs to be done to understand the views and experiences of marginalised populations.