Enter and view: Ilford Lane Surgery

Healthwatch Redbridge conducted an announced Enter and View visit to Ilford Lane Surgery on 26 September 2017 as part of a programme of work across all GP practices within the area. The visits were carried out to review the implementation of the Accessible Information Standard to ensure that people with a learning disability, communication impairment or sensory loss are provided with information in a format that they can understand.

This project included a desktop survey of the Practice website, two of the volunteers involved in this part of the work had communication impairments; one Deaf volunteer and one volunteer with Asperger's Syndrome.

During the visit the Enter and View Authorised representatives spoke with the Practice Manager and one receptionist, they were unable to speak to patients as there were none in the waiting are at the time of the visit.

The findings noted that staff receive annual Deaf awareness training, communication training as well as Easy Read training, new patients were asked about communication needs at registration and existing patients' communication needs are updated when they visit the practice.

Three recommendations were made to the Practice: the website should be made more accessible; the complaints/ compliments procedure should be available in a variety of formats; the surgery should display a poster about the Accessible Information Standard on the noticeboard.

There was no response received from Ilford Lane Surgery