Enter and view: Kingfisher Berkley Practice

Part of the Healthwatch Walsall remit is to carry out Enter and View Visits. Healthwatch Walsall Authorised Representatives will carry out these visits to health and social care premises to find out how they are being run and make recommendations where there are areas for improvement.

Healthwatch Walsall visited Kingfisher Berkley Practive on 26/06/2018.

Overall the feedback for the Practice was mostly positive of the patients Healthwatch Walsall spoke to on the day of our visit, almost 90% said they would recommend the Practice to others. The infrastructure and facilities as provided are very good. However, not surprisingly issues exist for patients mainly around access and information.

There was also some disparity in the responses to getting appointments with 56% rating it as good or very good; however, by contrast most of the same respondents had consultation appointments granted within 24 hours. A greater uptake and implementation of online/text technology would no doubt help improve communication between the Practice and patients accordingly.

Choice of GP remains an important factor for patients and providing the information regarding their dedicated accountable GP would no doubt help to smooth this issue.

In addition, the Practice needs to determine how it more easily disseminates information on both complaints and Patient Participation channels. From the feedback derived on the day of visit Healthwatch Walsall, there are clearly gaps in patient knowledge concerning their right to both complain and raise concerns and how to engage effectively in the determination of how services are shaped / provided to them.

This is despite the obligatory information being adequately displayed in the reception. Clearly, this is a difficult task to negotiate for such a large practice.

The report contains 5 recommendations and a response from the provider.