Cambrian Medical Centre - Enter & View visit report

Report - 23 January 2020

Ensuring services are advertised to patients and ease of access are two of the core requirements for improving access to general practice. The purpose of this visit was to see if the Practice was meeting the requirements as set out by NHS England

Summary

Healthwatch Shropshire (HWS) has received many comments regarding the availability of GP appointments in the last year. The public seem generally unaware of extended access appointments (appointments available outside normal surgery opening hours) being available. HWS are gathering further information about access to GP appointments through a hot topic. A hot topic is targeted activity looking at one particular aspect of health and social care and inviting views from the public.

We decided to visit GP surgeries across Shropshire to discuss appointments and see how they are offering extended access appointments, if they are advertising them in the surgery and if they are making patients aware of them when they ask. We visited GP practices representing a range of list sizes and in different areas of Shropshire.

Key Findings

  • The surgery is experiencing high demand for appointments. The wait for a routine GP appointment is 10 days or longer to see a named GP.
  • The surgery use a duty Doctor system to triage patients requesting same day appointments.
  • The surgery offer Extended Access appointments when people cannot get an appointment on the day.
  • Most people we spoke to were not aware of Extended Access appointments. There were posters telling patients about Extended Access in the two waiting areas we saw, however, there were a lot of different posters on display and it would be difficult to place these posters prominently enough that patients would definitely see them.
  • Patients were generally very happy with their treatment at Cambrian Medical Centre.

Full Report

Download (PDF 867 KB)

More Information about the Enter & View scheme can be found here.

Please note the findings of this report reflect what we found on the day of our visit and services may change over time. More information about this service can be found on the Care Quality Commission website and the practice website.

If you need this report in a different format, please contact us:

enquiries@healthwatchshropshire.co.uk

01743 237884

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