Patient Matters

Spring 2023 Issue

We're taking part in the accelerated programme

A team of our clinical, management and reception staff are taking part in an NHS Primary Care programme designed to deliver rapid improvements in priority areas...

The Accelerated Access Improvement Programme comprises weekly facilitated sessions, to identify and address issues. GP practices that have already taken part said it has led to a better patient journey and reduced waiting times.

Practice Manager, Dianne Gross, said: ‘Along with GP practices nationally we are experiencing really high levels of demand, as our workload figures (right) show.

We need to make sure that we are doing as much as we can with the time and resources available and so this programme allows our team to see where changes can be made to help us make gains where we can.

We are working with an experienced programme facilitator who makes suggestions and gives feedback on progress so far.'

Doctrin

If you haven't tried Doctrin, our online consultation platform yet then here's a few great reasons to ...

Our Online Consultation System allows patients to seek advice for:

• Non-Urgent Medical Conditions
• Medicine/Prescription Queries
• Healthcare and Self-Care Advice

Features:

• Easy to use
• Detailed questionnaires
• Saves waiting in a telephone queue
• Can be easily accessed from mobile devices
• Open during surgery hours
• Triage to most appropriate team member
• Very popular with patients
• Attracts great feedback and satisfaction ratings 

Since we launched the platform, our team has delivered over 20,000 Doctrin consultations - here's how users rate it:

• 93.7% of Patients were met with Compassion
• 90.2% Would recommend Doctrin
• 86.6% Received sufficient information

LEARN MORE ABOUT DOCTRIN HERE

Introducing some New Team Members

Apprentice Health Care Assistant Kaitlyn Jackson

Apprentice Health Care Assistant Kaitlyn Jackson is really enjoying her role at New Queen Street and enjoys the contact she has with patients.

Kaitlyn always wanted a career in healthcare and heard about the apprenticeship opportunity via her Sixth Form. She had already studied a Health and Social Care qualification and now, after a few months of training, she is a busy and valued member of the team.

She said: 'I work full time and sometimes patients are surprised because I am so young but taking this route has definitely been the right move for me.'

Musculoskeletal First Contact Practitioner Abdullah Shafique

Abdullah Shafique is our Musculoskeletal First Contact Practitioner, helping with soft tissue problems, muscular, joints and nerve pains.

He is an experienced senior musculoskeletal and sports physiotherapist, with a Master’s degree in Advanced Physiotherapy, offering a range of targeted advice for those suffering any form of MSK problem.

First Contact Practitioners are a relatively new role in Primary Care, allowing patients to be examined, diagnosed, and triaged directly to a specialist, rather than having to be seen by a GP first.

Patients are generally given 20-minute appointment slots, follow-up advice if needed and a personalised treatment plan including self-care and exercise.

Please take part in our Patient Access Survey

We are running a survey to gauge your experience of accessing our services ...

This is a Partnership-wide initiative, which will help us understand your experiences at our practice, as well as capturing cross-site trends.

The survey includes questions about what other healthcare advice you access before getting in touch with us, your experience when contacting us, plus more about the staff you generally, or would like to have contact with.

There are also ‘free text’ boxes so you can submit more detailed answers, however, please do not submit confidential or medical details.

The survey will accept responses until 11.45pm on Friday 7 April 2023.

HAVE YOUR SAY HERE

If you do not have online access, then paper copies are also available from reception. If you need assistance in completing the survey, then please ask at reception and we will do our best to help.

Your views are important and will inform how our sites and Partnership make the best use of limited staff and resources to cope with the high level of demand we are collectively experiencing.