February 2014 Dr P Noakes Dr D Ekbery Dr W Outwin Dr M Duffield Dr P Moxon Dr D Machin www.parksurgerygreatyarmouth.nhs.uk Contact us on 01493 855672 Welcome to our February 14 Newsletter. We hope you find our newsletters useful in updating you with what is happening at the practice, as well as the wider NHS. On line appointment booking is here! We are now offering patients the ability to book appointments with the doctors on line. Already quite a few patients order their repeat prescriptions on line, and this works very well. All those already registered to order repeat prescriptions on line will be able to book appointments on line as well. Please ask at Reception to register for the on line facility and for further details. “Did not attend” rate We know that our patients have had to wait longer recently to see a doctor. In the past we have nearly always been able to offer routine appointments on the same day or the day afterwards, but this has been more difficult recently. We have been trying to rectify this by offering more appointments, but the main problem seems to be patients booking an appointment and then failing to attend. Each week we get in the region of 70 – 90 appointments booked with no one showing up. This is equal to 15 hours of surgeries per week. Please, please, please, if you no longer need your appointment, let us know so that we can offer it to someone else. Care Quality Commission Our practice is now registered with the Care Quality Commission, along with all other GP practices. The Care Quality Commission is an independent regulator of all health and social care services in England. Their job is to ensure that all care provided by hospital, dentists, care homes and GP primary Care Practices meet the national standards of quality. GP practices will receive inspections and will be continually monitored to ensure that they are meeting the national standards. During an inspection patients will be asked about their experiences of care at the practice, and inspectors will talk to clinical staff and check the correct systems and processes are in place. NHS Choices – How was your experience at our surgery? Did you know you can rate, comment and read our patient feedback on line at www.nhs.uk/comment? The Park Surgery Newsletter 10 Surgery Entrance At last we have had an automatic door installed. We hope this has made access to the surgery easier for those with mobility problems and also young children. We apologise that it has taken so long to get this up and running. Patient Representation Group The Surgery has a Patient Representation Group (PRG). This group represents the views of our patients, and helps us make decisions about what improvements patients would like to see in the practice. If you would like to join this group please ask to speak to our practice manager, Carol Charles. Most of the work is done via e mail and we only ask for a very small amount of your time! Patient Survey Our practice survey was performed in November 2013. We were pleased to see that overall the scores were very similar to those of the previous year and 63% of patients felt we did not need to improve on the building, telephone system, appointment system or electronic communication. There were many very good comments concerning our staff and doctors, which was very encouraging. Having discussed the results of the survey within the practice and with our patient representation group we agreed the following action plan. The full report from the survey will be on our website shortly and the charts representing the responses will be on our notice board.  Continue monitoring the car park  Encourage on line appointment booking  Advertise number of missed appointments in public area  Trial staff member answering phone away from the desk  Consider reducing the time for patients to phone in for repeat scripts  Decorate the Reception area. Health and Social Care Information Centre – NHS England (extract). Care data Information about you and the care you receive is shared, in a secure system, by healthcare staff to support your treatment and care. It is important that the NHS can use this information to plan and improve services for all patients. Information such as your postcode and NHS number, but not your name, will be used to link your record in a secure system, so your identity is protected. How your information is used and shared is controlled by law and strict rules are in place to protect your privacy. Benefits of sharing information – Sharing information can help improve understanding, locally and nationally, of the most important health needs and the quality of the treatment and care provided by local health services. Do I have a choice? Yes, you have the right to prevent confidential information about you from being shared or used for any purpose other than providing your care, except in special circumstances, eg if there is a public health emergency. If you do not want information that identifies you to be shared outside your GP practice, ask us to make a note of this in your medical record by completing our “opt out” form. Your choice will not affect the care you receive. Do I need to do anything? If you are happy for your information to be shared you do not need to do anything. Where can I get more information? There are information leaflets in the surgery, or go to the website at www.nhs.uk/caredata.