Ramsbury & Wanborough Local Patient Participation Report 2011-12

							Ramsbury & Wanborough Local Patient Participation Survey Report

Introduction

The practice already had a patient representative group, which has been running for
approximately 15 years. Initially, this was set up with representatives from the local
parish councils but over the years it has developed and there is now a greater
representation from the practice community. The patient representative group
provided the foundation for the patient reference group (PRG) to be created. The
PRG is a virtual group and feedback is sought primarily electronically but we did not
exclude those who wished to participate on a paper basis. The practice is still
accepting new members to the PRG for ongoing feedback.

Engagement

In order to obtain a representative sample of patients, we advertised joining the
reference group within both Ramsbury and Wanborough surgeries. Leaflets were
printed and distributed to local organisations, eg toddler groups, pre-school and the
local youth and luncheon clubs. In the Wanborough area, leaflets were delivered to
every household within the local monthly magazine. An advertisement was also
placed in “Whitton Ways” (Ramsbury and Froxfield church magazine) regarding the
establishment of this new group. We also included a link on the surgery website
where patients could join the reference group direct.

Below is a copy of the advertisement text used:

Our Practice has recently signed up to a new service called the ‘Patient Participation
Direct Enhanced Service’ with NHS Wiltshire. This will be a ‘virtual’ group through our
current Patient Representative Group. It has been setup to enable patients to be
actively involved in providing constructive feedback about current health services and
as a route to make suggestions/comments about your local healthcare providers. We
would like to ensure we have a balanced cross section of our population feeding into
this group such as teenagers, carers, parents of young children, pensioners, disabled,
all ethnic groups etc. If you sign up to be involved, short surveys will be sent out
periodically via email and you will be able to contact a member of the PRG via
telephone/email to put forward your concerns, feedback, suggestions etc. To sign up
to this group, please pick up a leaflet within the surgery or go to our website and click
the relevant link

The practice and original patient representative group agreed that the new PRG
members sufficiently represented the practice population.

This activity was undertaken to ask for the views of practice patients and take those
opinions into consideration in shaping services and improving quality.




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Patient Demographics

The surgery has 8557 patients, demographics as below:

0 - 5 years –         488
6 - 13 years -        849
14-23 years -         900
24 – 33 years –       699
34 – 43 years -       1083
44 – 53 years -       1501
54 – 63 years -       1247
64 – 73 years -       1020
74 – 83 years -       518
Over 84 years -       252

Sex :
Male –         4327
Female -       4230

Ethnicity:
British or mixed British – 97.9%
Other black – 1.0%
Chinese – 0.8%
Indian – 0.3%
Polish – <0.1% (3 patients)



Patient Reference Group

Our PRG comprises 80 members who are all registered patients. Not all of these 80
took part in the survey, despite a reminder being sent to those who did not reply to
the first mailing. Those who did participate answered as follows (although not all
responded to every question):

Gender
Male:          23
Female:        39

Age
Under 16: 1           17-24: 2               25-34: 2             35-44: 6
45-54: 6              55-64: 15              65-74: 18            75-84: 10
Over 85: 5            Did not wish to give their age: 0




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Ethnicity
White British: 60                               White Irish: 1
Other White: 3                                  Mixed - White Black Caribbean: 0
Mixed - White Black African: 0                  Mixed - White Black Asian: 0
Mixed – Other: 0                                Asian/British Asian – Indian: 0
Asian/British Asian – Pakistani: 0              Asian/British Asian – Bangladeshi: 0
Asian/British Asian – Other: 0                  Black/Black British – Caribbean: 0
Black/Black British – African: 0                Black/Black British – Other: 0
Chinese: 0                                      Did not wish to state: 0
Other than listed above: 0


Carers
4 care for a friend or relative unpaid

Parents
4 have children under 5                  8 have children aged 5 – 14
3 have children aged 15 – 18             1 is a single parent

Disability
11 said they have a disability

Employment
Employed:      13                        Self employed: 8
Retired:       32                        Students:     2
Looking after the home: 5                Other: 4




Under Represented Groups

The practice recognised that we were under-represented in the under 34 age
bracket and single parent categories. This was discussed with our patient
representatives group and all representatives agreed to promote/target this age
range for more participation. Over the following weeks, two more patients came
forward and joined the reference group. The practice is still aware that we need to
increase participation from these categories and are continuing to garner interest.

The practice has a very small ethnic population and as result this group is difficult to
represent within the PRG.




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Priority Areas

In July 2011, we held discussions with the patient representative group on priority
areas to target in our first PRG survey. Initial areas were identified as being the
website, information available within the waiting areas and general communication
with the surgery. The practice was aware of comments from patients regarding the
lack of information on the website and its occasional unreliability and were keen for
feedback in this area. Observations on how to improve the overall information
available to them within the waiting areas were also received. These priority areas
were agreed between the practice and patient representative group in September
2011.

Survey Compilation

A patient approached us offering their services with compiling the survey, as they
were very knowledgeable in this field and were able to call upon their wealth of
previous experience. We advised them of the identified priority areas and they
designed the format accordingly.

Method of Communication

Primarily, the PRG is a virtual group but, as a practice, we did not want to exclude
those with no online access and the PRG therefore accepted those who wished to
complete the survey on paper.

Questionnaire

We used Survey Monkey to conduct and manage the survey for both online users
and those who submitted a paper survey, the latter being uploaded manually.
Results were downloaded from Survey Monkey and then broken down into further
categories before distribution to the patient representative group.

Survey Results

In February 2012, the analysed survey results were discussed with the
representatives at a face-to-face meeting.

Themes emerging from the questionnaire

31 people answered the question “Are there any other ways you would like to
communicate with the surgery”, and the main themes to emerge were as follows:

Communication: most of these patients were happy with the communication
methods in place but some would like to be able to have direct email
correspondence with the GPs and nurses. A few patients said they were not happy
with the self-service check-in.


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Appointments: some patients would like to be able to make appointments direct
with the nurses and for appointment times to be sent to them direct electronically.
Some patients felt their time with the doctor was insufficient and therefore did not
leave the surgery with enough information.

Website and Waiting Area Information:
Nearly 75% of those who answered felt that the information available on the
website and in the waiting area was “Great” or “Good”. However, some criticisms
and suggestions were put forward on both:

Website: a few patients felt the surgery website could be improved, including access
issues and the inclusion of links to other medical sites and local services for
information.

Waiting Area: Many patients would like to have subject folders, themed notice
boards and leaflet display racks, and some suggested that the latter should be
positioned away from the main waiting area for privacy. Topics proposed for the
subject folders and themed notice boards included group activities for patients with
ongoing illnesses and regular theme changes to keep frequent visitors to the surgery
informed of various issues. Some patients would like leaflets on how to avoid the
spread of infection and common childhood illnesses. New patients would like more
local community related information, and details on medical procedures and home
treatments within the Practice Booklet.

Other issues raised: patients requested more information on out of hours services
as an alternative to visiting the A&E department, and on how to choose a consultant.

There were no areas of discussion which required contractual issues to be
considered.

The practice felt that Survey Monkey restricted us in building the survey as we were
very limited in both the number and format of questions permitted. This issue will
be addressed and improved upon in Year 2.




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  Action Plan:



    Priority          Desired Outcome                        Comments                        Target Date/
                                                                                                Status
Surgery website   Improve website with more      Surgery agree                            Ongoing
                  external links, chronic
                  disease information, details                                            Aim for
                  of local services and                                                   completion by
                  support groups                                                          September 2012
Electronic        Patients want more             The practice felt that a workable        Highlight
communication     opportunity to                 method of email communication            awareness during
                  communicate via text and       with the clinical team would be          April, May & June
                  email with clinical team       difficult to achieve at the present      2012
                                                 time, likewise for apps. The
                                                 practice will be utilising the text
                                                 messaging facility more via the
                                                 clinical system. We want to
                                                 promote the current messaging
                                                 facility available to all patients who
                                                 register to use the online platform,
                                                 eg making/cancelling
                                                 appointments, requesting repeat
                                                 medication etc. They can ask any
                                                 questions and once the electronic
                                                 message is received at the surgery
                                                 it will be directed to the
                                                 appropriate person. These
                                                 messages can then be tracked via
                                                 an audit trail.
Waiting Area      Patients would like more       Surgery agree.                           August 2012
Information       information available          Waiting area information to
                  within the waiting areas,      receive improvement over the
                  themed notice boards,          coming months.
                  chronic disease leaflets,
                  local support groups etc.




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Patient Information - Surgery Opening Hours:

Ramsbury & Wanborough Surgery Opening Hours:

Ramsbury
Monday – Friday 8.30am – 6.30pm
Saturday – 9am – 11.30am
Tel: 01672 520366 for all enquiries

Wanborough
Monday - 8.30am – 12 noon and 4.15pm – 7.30pm
Tuesday – Friday 8.30am – 12 noon and 4.15pm – 6.30pm
Saturday – 8.30am – 9.30am
Tel: 01793 790527 for all enquiries

Ramsbury & Wanborough Surgery offers extended hours opening and these
appointments are available on Saturday mornings and Monday evenings.

Patients requiring medical assistance outside of these hours should contact our
Out of Hours Provider, Wiltshire Medical Services. They can be contacted direct on
0300 111 5717 (between 6.30 pm and 8.00 am) OR you can telephone the surgery
and your call will be redirected to Wiltshire Medical Services.


A big thank you to all those who participated in this survey. We look forward to
implementing the above improvement measures in due course.

March 2012




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