Noticeboard

Out of Hours
At all times of the day telephone 01953 881247 for emergency assistance. Before 8.30am and after 6.30pm there will be a recorded message telling you a number to telephone in order to contact the out of hours service. This is usually 01603 488488

Appointments
To book an appointment, please telephone on 01953 881247, or call into the surgery. All calls are queued, so please hold until the receptionist answers.

Home Visits
Whilst it is preferable patients come to the surgery, if someone is really are too unwell to come, a doctor or paramedic will visit. Home visits will only be made for medical reasons, not for social reasons. Please telephone before 10.00 a. m. to request a home visit.

PATIENT SURVEY OUTCOMES 2008/9


WATTON MEDICAL PRACTICE
 
 
Outcome of our 2009/10 Patient Survey.
 
Three hundred patients completed the Patient Satisfaction Survey form in early October, and now have the results available to share with you. 
 
We  had many encouraging and constructive comments regarding our service and the care that we are able to give. Some of you made comments regarding improvements that we could review and again we thank you for those comments too. 
 
 
All the areas of the questionnaire that concerned the doctors’ actual care of patients showed a high satisfaction level, with the following being on or above the national average:
 

  • Doctors questioning
  • Doctors listening
  • Being put at ease by doctors
  • Doctors patience
  • The care and concern shown by doctors


 Your main area of concern was contacting the surgery by phone. Some patients have also made this issue known outside of the survey results and we are sorry that it is affecting our patients.

We do have a team of receptionists who answer the phone - some you can see at the front reception desk and others answer the phone in the upstairs offices. In the morning, there are up to 8 employees all answering the phone, greeting patients and booking appointments and responding to general queries.

We have had our phone lines checked to ensure that the system is working correctly and will review what we currently do to try to improve this important part of our service..

We would like your help too please. When phoning in to the surgery, if you could be as brief as possible with your call it would assist the reception team to answer the next incoming call. Also, please do use the automatic check-in as this will leave the receptionist free to answer the phones.
    
In response to some of our patients who find it difficult to see a clinician outside of normal surgery hours,  from February 2009, we are opening early (from 7am) 2 mornings a week and late (until 8pm) one day a week. This should really assist with access to the surgery.

Many of the comments made in the survey related to the forward booking of appointments, and we have altered our appointment system to reflect this fact You may now book up to 3 weeks in advance to see a doctor and 8 weeks in advance to see a nurse..  It is an interesting statistic that 6% of our pre-booked appointments are taken by patients who then Do Not Attend (DNA)! Previously it has been proved that the further in advance an appointment is booked the more likely it is that a patient may DNA.

We would like to take this opportunity to remind all patients that GP's are not contracted to offer a week-end or out of hours service.  This service was given to a large company - East Anglian Ambulance Service - in Norfolk and we have no jurisdiction over their services. There is always access to a health care professional through their service when we are closed.


  
 Mary Osborne
July 2010