Station Drive Surgery - Enter & View visit report

Ensuring services are advertised to patients and ease of access are two of the core requirements for improving access to general practice. The purpose of this visit was to see if the Practice was meeting the requirements as set out by NHS England

Summary

Healthwatch Shropshire (HWS) has received many comments regarding the availability of GP appointments in the last year. The public seem generally unaware of extended access appointments (appointments available outside normal surgery opening hours) being available. HWS are gathering further information about access to GP appointments through a hot topic. A hot topic is targeted activity looking at one particular aspect of health and social care and inviting views from the public.

We decided to visit GP surgeries across Shropshire to discuss appointments and see how they are offering extended access appointments, if they are advertising them in the surgery and if they are making patients aware of them when they ask. We visited GP practices representing a range of list sizes and in different areas of Shropshire.

Key Findings

  • We found the practice offered information about appointments including Extended Access in a variety of ways.
  • Patients found it easy to get an appointment with a GP at the surgery
  • Four out of five patients knew about Extended Access appointments
  • The surgery has an active Patient Participation Group and patient involvement is encouraged
  • The surgery’s duty Doctor system works well and patients benefit from this as it keeps appointment waiting times down
  • The surgery is very proactive in embracing new developments and looking for new opportunities for example research projects

More Information about the Enter & View scheme can be found here.

Please note the findings of this report reflect what we found on the day of our visit and services may change over time. More information about this service can be found on the Care Quality Commission website and the practice website.

If you need this report in a different format, please contact us:

enquiries@healthwatchshropshire.co.uk

01743 237884

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