Enter and view: Alcester Health Centre.
Download (PDF 301.06 KB)Summary of report content
Healthwatch Warwickshire did an announced Enter and View to Alcester Health Centre, on 11th March, 2015. The surgery is a purpose-built building which houses two GP Surgeries and a Pharmacy.
The surgery was modern, spacious and decorated to a good standard, with a a large car park for visitors and ample disabled parking available.
The healthwatch team found the surgery to meet all their observational criteria except that there was no information available in other formats for patients and the names/photographs of GPs and staff at the surgery were not displayed.
The Healthwatch questionnaire asked the patients attending the surgery about appointments, access, parking, signage, staff attitudes, cleanliness and the quality of care amongst other things. 4 out of the 35 respondents found the appointment booking system at the GP to be Poor, “34 calls before I could get through, but I did get an appointment”. 33 people did not have any experience of public transport to the surgery and consequently did not respond, while 33 rated the surgery Good in cleanliness/hygiene. Some people expressed their concerns about the reception staff attitudes, “Asks if nurse can see you. If you say no shouldn’t have to answer why you need to see a GP”.
The report makes the following two recommendations:
- Due to several concerns about the appointment booking system, the report recommends maximising the use of online appointment booking to reduce the amount of telephone traffic. A ‘How To’ guide could assist those who are not familiar with booking online.
- The surgery provides the Patient Participation Group (PPG) with a notice board so that patients are aware of the role of the PPG and minutes of meetings, results of surveys etc. are available within the surgery.
- That appointment booking staff are reminded that a patient does not need to disclose their reason for requesting an appointment if they do not wish to.
The surgery responded with the comment; “We feel our receptionists need to ask patients the reason for an appointment so that they can signpost our patients correctly. We are investing a lot of time and training with our receptionists as we offer a range of services including triage, nurse appointments and also doctors. Hence the need for clarification from the patient.”