Widbrook Medical Practice
WIDBROOK MEDICAL PRACTICE
72 WINGFIELD ROAD,
TROWBRIDGE, BA14 9EN
Dr C Foggett
Dr R Collins
Dr Z Mohiuddin
Telephone number 01225 757120
Appointments 01225 757143
We concluded from last year’s survey that there was a desire for the surgery to extend the online facility of requesting repeat prescriptions to include the facility of booking appointments online as well.
At the same time the survey indicated a need for more appointments that could be booked in advance.
Accordingly we had a brief trial period of booking appointments online to establish the methodology and to look for any teething problems, and soon afterwards the facility was made available to all our patients. Predominantly these appointments are advanced appointments with a range up to 14 days in advance.
This online facility has been advertised within the surgery as well as on our website.
This time last year the number of patients registered to use the online service was approximately 700. This has now doubled to over 1400.
This year’s survey has been designed to give us an indication of the uptake of both the advanced appointments, the use of the online facility, and the impact that this has had on the shape of our services and the way you use them.
The survey was made available online during March 2014 and also to patients attending the surgery during the same period of time. Again 150 patients took part and the results have been collated using the online survey tool. The full results are published in the usual way within our website should you wish to see them.
Results
1. The service had been in place for approximately nine months prior to the survey and pleasingly 59% of the respondents said they were aware of the facility to order repeat prescriptions online and 62% said they were aware of being able to book appointments online. Some 13% said they had booked an appointment online in the last 6 months and at the same time there was a drop of 17% of patients booking appointments over the phone during the same period of time. Of these who has tried to book an advanced appointment 24% said they were able to do so, 37% said they were offered an appointment that suited them and a further 18% said they had still been offered an appointment even if it did not entirely suit them.
2. Whilst last year’s survey clearly indicated a desire for increased numbers of advanced appointments (57%), it also clearly indicated that 60% of respondents wanted “same day” appointments whilst only 49% said they were able to get an appointment on the same day. In this year’s survey, of the 77 patients who answered the question number 4 about urgent appointments, 65% answered that they were able to book an appointment on the same day and 20% were given an appointment with 48 hours whilst the remaining 15% were given a commitment for the duty doctor to be consulted and for them to be phoned back.
3. There was concern last year that some patients may not have reasonable internet access. In fact when directly asked this year 86% responded that they did have adequate access.
Conclusions
From the results it seems that the facility for booking online appointments and advanced appointments has been well received. It has come into existence without impacting on the urgent facility. In fact, our performance with respect to urgent appointments has improved.
However, only 1400 of our patients are using this service and it would seem sensible to promote it further.
Finally question number 8 clearly shows that the majority of responders (75%) would like this service extended to include nurse’s appointments.
Action plan
1. To further promote the facility of booking doctor’s appointments and ordering repeat prescriptions online. This will be done both by poster in the surgery and by making information available on our website.
2. To consult with out nursing staff and some patients how to roll out this online facility to some nurses appointments. This is likely to be more complex because of the variety of work that they do and a trial period in May 2014 will be used to inform us how best to move forward.
3. Once the trial period has been analysed we plan to put this facility in place by the 1st June 2014.
Finally we would like to take this opportunity once again to thank those that have taken part in the survey and in subsequent discussions and to encourage anyone to join our Participation Group by forwarding us their details.