Enter and view - Red Roofs Surgery, Nuneaton

Healthwatch Warwickshire did an announced Enter and View to Red Roofs Surgery, a purpose-built building, on 20th April 2015. There was visible signage from the main road to the practice, which had a car park, with disabled parking bays, available for the patients. The internal of the surgery was clean and spacious.

The Healthwatch team found the surgery didn’t meet all their observational criteria. There was not much privacy at reception for the patients, and there was no efficient way to inform the patients of waiting times and delays. There were no toys/books available for children and there wasn’t information for the patients in other formats.

The questionnaire asked the patients attending the surgery about appointments, access, parking, signage, staff attitudes, cleanliness and the quality of care amongst other things. 9 respondents found the appointment booking system to be poor while 8 out of 30 found the punctuality of the appointments ‘poor’, “Always waiting even with a young baby.”

“My wife wasn’t told her appointment was with the duty doctor until she had made it. She should have been told first."

The report made two recommendations; for the surgery to look into the concerns raised by the patients in respect of the appointment booking system, and informing patients on the day of any delays which may impact their appointment.

The surgery responded saying they have actively promoted the use of on line booking and they have two TV screens running in house messages and national/local Health campaigns, which can also be used for patient calling. Unfortunately the hard drive that supports them failed and was away being repaired during the visit. The surgery accepted that the waiting areas could be more child friendly, but the toys often migrate to rooms or out of the surgery.