The Hollies Patient Forum

What is the Hollies Patient Forum?

 

The Hollies Patient Forum (HPF) is a ‘Patient Participation Group’ and allows patients to offer their views, experiences, suggestions and ideas to the Practice Team through a strong and close working partnership between patients and the Practice.

HPF is the patient voice of the Hollies Medical Centre.

In autumn 2022 we devised the Hollies Patient Survey which attracted over 750 responses. The practice is using the feedback from the survey to make appropriate changes. The key results from the survey are available to view below. Before that the HPF has provided valuable patient experience feedback including views on communications for the new appointment system, Covid-19 arrangements, disabled parking and access to the building. 

HPF

How can I get involved?

Anyone who is registered with the Hollies Medical Practice can join the HPF.

There are three ways to get involved

  • If you would like to receive updates and get your views heard confidentially - you can join the HPF e-group. It is an email group so you do not need to attend meetings to be involved
  • We are also looking for volunteers with specific skills to help us with our work on an occasional basis. The skills we sometimes need are:
    • Community languages
    • Proof reading and reviewing texts or documents
    • Creating and developing accessible reading materials
    • IT and webpage development
    • Communications and social media
  • There is a Steering Group of around 12 patient members, (plus 2 Practice members in attendance), who co-ordinate the work of the HPF and feed back ideas and suggestions from the e-group directly and confidentially to the Practice. They meet every 2 months on a Monday evening.

Why should I join the HPF?

As a patient of the Hollies Medical Centre your views and opinions matter.

By joining the HPF e-group you can describe your experiences of the Hollies Medical Centre, air your views and share your ideas for improvements by confidential email. You may also be invited to participate in surveys, or help with some of the improvements and activities resulting from patient feedback.

The HPF e-group should represent as wide a range of Hollies patients as possible. All ages, backgrounds, cultures and personal experiences are welcome.

When you join the e-Group you will receive feedback on issues raised by patients, plus agendas and notes from the Steering Group meetings so you are up to date with relevant developments at the Practice and the ongoing work of the HPF. We will also let you know when we are recruiting members to the Steering Group.

As a volunteer with skills to offer you will be helping the HPF to carry out our work more effectively, making a positive difference to local health services

If you would like to join the HPF e-group or volunteer your skills on an occasional basis, please e-mail:

hpfegroup3@gmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you!

 

Please note: The Hollies Patient Forum does not deal with individual patient complaints.  These should be sent to the Practice addressed to the Patient Services Manager.

 

 

Click on the link below for the HPF Constitution and Terms of Reference:

HPF SURVEY 2022: RESULTS

Thanks very much to everyone who took part in the Hollies Patient Forum (HPF) Patient Survey in October.  We received over 750 responses and obtained a great deal of helpful information. HPF and the Hollies staff will now be using this insight to improve some of the systems at the surgery.  Please click on the link below to see the results of the questions we asked you. 

 

The key topics patients were concerned about were:

 

  • The current appointment system being unclear and difficult to navigate
  • The time slots to phone in for urgent appointments (8am til 10am) and for routine appointments (10am til 11am) being too narrow 
  • Difficulties getting through and knowing your place in the queue on the telephone system
  • Waiting times when calling the Practice when Patients are unable to use online systems
  • More accessible times for the online system (AccuRX) to be open
  • Multiple different digital systems are now in place to make appointments which is confusing (AccuRX, SystmOline, Airmid) and not everyone understood how to use these
  • Needs to be made clearer that the reception staff do not make clinical decisions on deciding what is an urgent or routine appointment
  • Additional training for Reception and Administrative staff

 

Most of you who responded were happy with the service the Hollies Surgery offers and comments included: 

‘The Hollies is an excellent Practice. I feel respected and cared for. All the staff and medical professionals are efficient, kind and helpful’

‘I am very happy with the Hollies. It's an excellent practice - the best I've ever been with. I'm very grateful for this. My concerns are minor compared to the wonderful care I receive from the staff at your practice. Thank you for working so hard to keep us all healthy!’

 

Many of you came up with came up with suggestions. These ranged from:

‘Please implement a phone queuing system’

‘Allow patients to book an appointment (in person) at reception if they wish to’

‘It would take some pressure of the reception staff if you could call throughout the day to make non urgent appointments’ 

 

We have presented all your feedback, including your suggestions, to the Hollies Surgery for them to consider and they have committed to providing a detailed response.  We will be asking them what changes they intend to make as a result of the survey results.  So, watch this space and look out for further information about the impact of the survey in the January Newsletter!

 

The HPF Team

 

LINK TO SURVEY RESULTS: PLEASE CLICK BELOW

Minutes & Reports

Practice Survey Reporting 2022

The GP Patient Survey is an independent survey run by Ipsos MORI on behalf of NHS England. The survey is sent out to over a million people across the UK. The results show how people feel about their GP practice.

105 patients responded to the latest survey.

What this Practice Does Best

99% of respondents felt they were involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their care and treatment during their last general practice appointment

Local (ICS) average: 90% National average: 90%

98% of respondents had confidence and trust in the healthcare professional they saw or spoke to during their last general practice appointment

Local (ICS) average: 93% National average: 93%

94% of respondents find the receptionists at this GP practice helpful

Local (ICS) average: 83% National average: 82%

93% of respondents felt the healthcare professional recognised or understood any mental health needs during their last general practice appointment

Local (ICS) average: 81% National average: 81%

69% of respondents find it easy to get through to this GP practice by phone

Local (ICS) average: 46% National average: 53%

 

What this Practice Could Improve

82% of were given a time for their last general practice appointment

Local (ICS) average: 89% National average: 90%

82% of respondents say the healthcare professional they saw or spoke to was good at treating them with care and concern during their last general practice

Local (ICS) average: 83% National average: 83%

Click here to see the full details of the survey