November 2005
Attending
Neil, Veronica, Anne and Tracey
The first forum took place on Monday 28th November. Unfortunately of the 12 people invited only 2 turned up. Two patients sent their apologises and one patient informed us prior to the meeting that he did not wish to take part.
We discussed
The previous meeting, Patient Survey and Choose & Book
Previous Meeting
Two patients attended, and we informed them both that the Practice had
taken on board their suggestions and that we now had changed the telephone
system to have a front end answering service and that we were looking
at the possibility of putting in the patient information system that they
had suggestion for the waiting rooms during the last meeting in September.
Patient Survey
Both Patients were given a copy of the patient survey results to review
they were very agreeable to the results and felt that this was a very
positive document to take forward.
They did think patients could benefit by the Practice staying open later and offering appointments until between 6.30 pm and 7.00 pm maybe once or twice a week but appreciated that this could be a logistical problem. Especially if we were not funded for this as the staff hours would have to be moved. But the Practices core hours of 8.00 am to 6.00 pm would not changed and we would therefore have manning issues especially in reception due to the phones.
They felt that the Practice did not need to open at weekends as patient requirements were being meet by CueDoc and felt patients should also be aware that they need to make the effort to see a doctor if required.
The issue of being able to see a specific doctor was also raised but both ladies stated that they did not have nor had had a problem with access to see a Doctor, both ladies were happy to see any doctor when they urgently needed to be seen, but did prefer to see a preferred doctor during an episode of care and they found this could be done with planning.
Choose & Book
It was explained to the patients about the Choose & Book system and
that this practice would be using a receptionists to book patient's
appointments as we couldn't afford the doctor time and the difficulty
that would cause with access and wondered if they had any worries our
queries about this. They asked whether or not non-clinical staff had to
sign a confidentiality agreement before commencing work here, they were
informed that they did and they asked us that we publicise this so patients
know before we introduce the booking of appointments for hospitals in
the Practices so patients wouldn't worry about this aspect of this
development.
The next meeting is to take place in February 2006 and the patient's present wish to discuss Prescribing. This was agreed.