Garswood Patient Group - Your Group, Your Voice

The surgery has an active patient group which meets twice a year in June and December.  We consult with our patient group about the way we deliver our services and over the years the group has contributed significantly to the introduction of a number of positive changes for the practice.  We are also members of the National Association for Patient Participation (N.A.P.P). N.A.P.P. regularly publish e-bulletins and newsletters which you can access via their website www.napp.org.uk

The minutes of our patient group meetings can be accessed by visiting the links below (in reverse chronological order):

1 December 2010
2 June 2010
18 December 2009
18 August 2009
16 April 2008

Some of the more recent changes your patient group has been involved in are:

• implementation of our telephone call queue management system which we utilise at times of peak demand and when we are operating on minimum staffing levels.  This has ensured that when the phone lines are very busy patients are informed of where they are in the queue instead of getting the engaged tone.  This allows them to make and informed decision about whether to call back or hold on and wait for their call to be answered.

• review of our repeat prescribing system.  On numerous occasions patients would call for their prescriptions 48 hours after they submitted it but the reception staff would be unable to locate the script because it was ‘somewhere in the system’.  This created problems for both patients and the pharmacy.  We now operate a fully audit prescription management system which has reduced the number of ‘missing scripts’ dramatically.

The group have also raised issues about queues at the front desk and we are in the process of introducing an easy to operate self check-in system which will allow patients to book in for an appointment without needing to queue at the reception desk.

If you would like to be involved in helping us to shape our services to meet the needs of our patients please tell the receptionist and we will ensure you receive an invitation to our next meeting.