Practice Population Profile

Show how the practice demonstrates that the patient reference group (PRG) is representative by providing information on the practice profile

Age   u16        7.5%

         17-24y  46.5

         25-34y  15%

         35-44y  16.5%

         45-54y  5.5%

         55-64y  4%

      Over65y   5%

Sex

46% male

54% female

Ethnicity

1.8% asian

1.6% black

1.5% Chinese

4.1% other non white groups

91.1% white/white british

(source – network of public health observatories national general practice profile 2011)

Other

PRG Profile

Describe how the practice demonstrated that the PRG is being representative by providing information on the PRG profile .

Age    <16yr   0%

         17-24y 57%

         25-34y 22%

         35-44y 21%

         45-54y 0

         55-64y 0

Sex

34% male

66% female

Ethnicity

4% black

2.5% Chinese

11% asian

82.5% white or white British

Other

Differences between the practice population and members of the PRG

Please describe variations between the group and what efforts the practice has made to reach any groups not represented

·         Our initial recruitment campaign consisted of posters in the surgery waiting rooms

·         Asking every patient who came into the surgery for a week

·         Through the web site;

·         Messages added to every prescription;

·         Mjog (mobile phone texting service) invitation for patients with mobile phone numbers.

·          

From the responses to this initial recruitment we have identified that the age of our PRG is well represented.  Our male/female proportions are weighted towards females and we have attempted to address this by asking the members of the Junior Common Rooms at the University of Lancaster to recruit some male post graduate students (ie over 25 years), preferably of Asian origin. 

The general ethnicity figures are well represented,

We are not using an existing patient group, as this changes every 1-3 years due to our demographics and this being mainly Lancaster University Medical Practice.

Survey

Please describe how the priorities were agreed and set

We emailed every patient who had agreed to take part and they were asked to prioritise what they thought was important.  DoH GP Access guidelines stated that creating an email contact list is a good starting point as “email is a fast and effective way to carry out simple surveys to get feedback from patients”.  Our list of ideas included

·         Ease of booking appointments

·         On line appointment booking

·         Nurse assessments

·         Do you want to see a particular GP (we noted from the last National General Practice Profile that our figures were slightly less than England average)

·         Awareness of opening hours

·         On line prescribing

·         Urgent appointments

A top 4 questions were identified as follows from responses

·         Would you say it was easy for you to arrange your consultation

·         Do you prefer to see a particular GP

·         Awareness of opening hours

·         Awareness of on-line services

The priority areas are those set out by the PRG from their responses to emails.

Describe how the questions were drawn up

The questions were determined by the PRG’s priorities. Questions were phrased using the National Directory for Dental and GP Access and the DoH guidelines.

Ranking questions were used for ease of participation, using 2 negative and 2 positive options.

Some of the questions were extracted from existing surveys which have proved useful within general practice previously.

Free survey tools were utilised - surveymonkey.com and easurveyspro.com.

Initial recruitment was through displaying posters/mjog texting/leaflets/face to face and the health forum users group at Lancaster University, which is a group including the Junior Common Rooms representatives for all students

The Student Union were canvassed via the health users group

We also printed invite messages on repeat prescriptions and on our website

An email was then sent to all of the patients who had expressed an interest in taking part and the questions were drawn up from their responses.

Email is a recognised fast, effective method of carrying out simple surveys to obtain feedback. University students use texting and email very freely and we were already aware how popular this method was to help us get across health promotion messages and appointment reminders.

How was the survey conducted?

Following the initial recruitment using the methods described above, an email was sent to all interested participants asking for their priorities.

The questions were agreed as the top 4 priorities chosen by the PRG.

In addition, questions were asked regarding age/sex/ethnicity to ensure representation of practice profile.

The questionnaires were returned to the University Health Centre Practice Manager in first instance.

A volunteer has also come forward from the PRG who is willing to collate and distribute future surveys.

Year 2 of the DES

In the second year this volunteer was approached and the same survey was sent out

Questions to the PRG were ranked for ease of participation using 2 negative and 2 positive options plus an additional comments area for ideas/solutions.

It was stated that the results of the survey would be published on the website during year 2 with literature helping students access our services more fully.

What were the survey questions?

Our first question was

“How easy was it to arrange your appointment today?”

-72.5% found it very easy, 26%, easy.  1.5% found it difficult and 0% found it very difficult.

2^nd question was “did you know that you can order your repeat prescriptions on line even if you are away from University, and we will post the prescription to you?”.

-23% said yes and 77% said no.

3^rd question was “Do you prefer to see a particular Doctor”

- 28% said yes and 72% said no.

These results show a small improvement on the previous year, but as both of the results are good we are very happy with that.

Action Plan

From talking to the volunteer PRG group and patients visiting the Practice, it was clear that there was a disparity of knowledge between students. And the following actions will help address this.

We will advertise and educate students about the different roles between different members of the Health Care team and how they are accessed.

We will advertise more widely the different types of appointments

eg acute team same day appointments,nurse practitioner clinics, chronic disease clinics, GP pre-bookable appointments, same day, minor surgery clinics , contraception clinics, sexual health clinics, medication review clinics, travel clinics, vaccine clinics, ante natal clinics, chlamydia screening clinics, smear clinics and sexual health clinics

We will explain what the different roles of the team are and what that means. This is especially important when we have patient from all over the world ,most of whom have never been to the UK before and do not understand the NHS or GP Practices.

We explained the different roles

eg HCA, phlebotomist, Practice nurse, Nurse Practitioner, FY2, ST3 doctors, medical students, innovative GPs, GPs with special interest, midwife, health visitor and receptionist roles.

We will help students use our systems more widely.

eg internet repeat prescription ordering, booking appts on the internet, manual checking in systems, being aware of the need to cancel unwanted appointments, the importance of sharing their phone numbers with us so that we can text them.

We have started this work by developing leaflets and we intend to do this fully in year two of this DES.

We have developed our own Practice phone App which can be downloaded onto i-phones or android phones. The App signposts patients to care over 24 hours a day 7 days a week and links into NHS Choices and health advice. It can be scanned onto a phone or downloaded from i-tunes and has been well received by students.

What did you disagree about?

Nothing

Are there any contractual considerations to the agreed actions?

We wont be able to afford to offer the extended hours on a Monday evening, if the LES is withdrawn by the CCG, as we employ extra GP and nurse hours with this funding.

Local patient participation report

Please describe how the report will be publicised and how the practice intends to update it on subsequent achievements .

We have published our plan on the website

www.kingstandunipractice.co.uk

We also distribute it via the University of Lancaster Health Care users group so that more students are informed.

This year we implemented our new “acute same day service” at the University Medical Centre. This new system means anyone who wants same day advice or consultation from a nurse practitioner and GP can do so. We have run this new system since January this year and it has been very well received. We are recruiting for a new nurse practitioner.

We are also taking part in the Self help pilot. The purpose of this is to educate patients in self help for simple everyday ailments like back ache, sore throats etc. All of the Practice staff will use the same leaflets so that the same message is delivered.

The 2 new systems above are particularly helpful on campus, because many of our patients are from overseas and don’t understand the NHS or how to get the best from it. These systems aim to help them navigate it more easily. It should also free up longer appointments slots for patients with the more serious illnesses and conditions.

Opening Times

Current opening times and out of hours arrangements included within the report

08:00 – 21:00 Monday

08:00 – 18:30 Tuesday – Friday

08:00 – 12 noon alternate Saturday.

Out of hours Service provided by Bay urgent care 0300 123 1144.