Feedback from satisfaction surveys
3 February 2025
As you may know, we send a text link to patients after their appointment for feedback about how we are doing.
Since we started this, responses have been mostly positive, with 86% of patients saying their experience was good or very good.
There are some recurring issues raised so we wanted to tell you how we have addressed these issues.
The most common issue is frustration that you can’t get an appointment, or that you can’t book an appointment in advance:
- You can book appointments for the same day by calling at 8.30am, coming to surgery when we open at 8.15am or request an appointment by filling in a form on our website, www.burngreavesurgery.nhs.uk/appointments.
- We offer a mix of telephone and face to face appointments. The receptionists do not have access to all of the face to face appointments, some are only for the doctor to book themselves. You may find that if you want a face to face appointment the receptionist cannot book one. They will let the doctor know you would like a face to face and then the doctor will ring you to discuss. A lot of problems do not need a face to face appointment, our experienced GPs are capable of making decisions following a telephone call. You may be asked to send a picture of a lump or rash; this is to help the doctor when they speak with you, but it also means we can check if a problem is getting worse or better by reviewing previous pictures, which are stored securely on your medical record.
- Our patient list size is growing, we now have over 8000 patients under our care, as part of our contract with NHS England, we are not allowed to decline registrations, except in exceptional circumstances. Obviously, this means more patients are trying to access our appointments!
- To help manage demand, we have increased our clinical team. We now have an experienced Clinical Practitioner. This is someone who is able to deal with minor ailments and prescribe treatment, request tests or refer to secondary care. We are lucky that our clinical practitioner is also a diabetic specialist and has a wealth of experience in care of the elderly. We host Junior doctors on placement, these are fully qualified doctors who are working in different areas of health care. They can diagnose, prescribe, request tests and refer. We have added an additional 2 Doctor sessions a week.
- You may find that our receptionists offer to refer you somewhere else. This may be the local pharmacy, optician, physio, clinical pharmacist or care coordinator. The doctor is not always the most appropriate person to deal with a particular issue, Opticians and physios are experts in their fields and may be able to provide more in depth examinations. Our physiotherapist is able to refer on to secondary care and provide sick notes if needed. Our Clinical pharmacy team in practice is able to deal with a number of issues, including drug queries or reactions.
- The local pharmacy is able to deal with lots of problems, and are able to give treatment, including antibiotics if needed, in the same way a doctor does. If you do not pay for your prescriptions then most treatments they recommend will be free too.
- By referring to these other specialities, it means we can see the very poorly patients who really do need to see us, without delay.
- We have also tried to reduce the amount of appointments used for admin reasons – maybe a repeat sick note, or to chase a hospital referral. Instead, these queries will be directed to our admin team or the doctor completing admin tasks.
- Our reception team may also tell you we are at capacity. If possible, they will offer you an appointment at one of the extended access hubs across the city. These are used by all of the surgeries in Sheffield and so appointments get taken very quickly!
- If we cannot direct you elsewhere or a hub appointment is not appropriate, then the receptionist will add you to our urgent demand list. This list is reviewed throughout the day by our duty doctor. It is really important that you give as much information as possible to the receptionist to enable the duty doctor to give you informed advice about your care. The receptionist is there to help you, but ultimately, once you are place on the urgent demand list it is the doctor who makes the final decision on your care.
- You can also book an appointment in advance. These appointments are normally within 2 weeks.
The second most common frustration is trying to get through to us by phone:
- We have 4 queues, one for GP appointments (option1), one for prescriptions, one for test results, and one for other queries or appointments with other clinicians.
- Between 8.30-9.30 only the queue for GP appointments is available. This is obviously the busiest queue option, so we want to concentrate on that queue and clear it as quickly as we can.
- We limit the amount of people who can be in the queue to 10. If there are already 10 people in the queue you will hear the message ‘ we are very busy at the moment please hang up and try again’ the phone call will then end. This is NOT us putting the phone down on you, there is just no room in the queue. We know getting through on the phones is frustrating, and we are open to suggestions on how we can improve this. We do have a visual board so we can see how many people are waiting , and how long they have been waiting; if there is a large queue, we ask our admin team to join the phones to take calls to speed things up.
- If you need to call us for something other than a GP appointment, or to book a routine GP appointment, it is best to call after 9.30am.
- There are alternative ways to contact us to order prescriptions, and check results other than phone calls. Prescriptions can be ordered via the NHS app, or our website.You can ask your pharmacist for the right side of your prescription. You can then tick the items you want to order and bring the paper back to us.
- We will only contact you about test results if they need follow up or treatment. If you do not hear from us, then the test results are normal. Again, you can see these results on the NHS app.
A lot of you would like to know why we no longer have a drop in clinic:
- Quite simply, we would not be able to manage the amount of demand this would create, now that our list size has grown so much.
- It creates a high risk space for patients with low immune systems. Air borne viruses spread much quicker in small, poorly ventilated indoor spaces, so our most vulnerable patients could become more ill.
- Recently, there was a measles outbreak in our postcode area. We managed to keep cases relatively low because we were able to see suspected cases when there were no other patients around; if this had happened at a drop in clinic, the illness would have spread rapidly and anyone sat in the waiting room at the same time could have become infected.
Taking control of your healthcare:
- We would advise that all patients who are able, should download the NHS app. Not only can you order prescriptions or check test results, you can see your vaccination history and medical record and you can check on the progress of hospital referrals.
In summary, we are really trying to offer the best service we can. We acknowledge that this isn’t perfect, but we always have patient care at the forefront of our decision making.
We will continue to review our systems and make any improvements we are able to.
Sadly, there are some things that we are not able to change, but we are always open to your constructive comments and suggestions; you can find a feedback form by clicking on the ‘Have your say’ tab on the website.
Thanks for taking the time to read this letter, we look forward to seeing you soon.
Kind regards,
Dr Beattie, Dr Bryson Dr Martinez and Dr Kundu
