Enter and view: Stockingford Medical Centre

Healthwatch Warwickshire did an announced Enter and View to Stockingford Medical Centre a purpose-built surgery, on 21st September 2015. At the time of the visit, there were ongoing repairs to the building due to a leak in the roof and subsequent damage due to water ingress. On the day of visit the scaffolding and skip were still in place, reducing the number of car park spaces. The internal decoration was in good condition and redecoration was needed in some places once the repair is done.

The Healthwatch team found the surgery didn’t meet some of their observational criteria, such as the waiting times not being displayed so receptionist would have to inform the patients of any delays. The surgery did offer translation of documents in 10 languages and had an active PPG group.

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. One person rated the appointment booking system as poor, “trying to get an appointment is difficult – lines are busy and appointments go.”

While 17 out of the 18 respondents rated the cleanliness and hygiene of the surgery as good. Most people found the care from the GP to be good, but some rated the reception staff as average.

The two recommendations the report makes are: the surgery to look into the concerns raised by the patients in respect of the appointment booking system, and to look at repainting the demarcation for parking bays, especially the disabled space.

The surgery responded/clarified to some of the factual comments in the report about the appointment system, the car parking availability and the leaking roof. They acknowledged they will look into painting car marking in the bays, but they felt they did their best to advertise the online appointments.