Patient Survey 2021 results

We received lots of positive responses around patient experience however we hear that making an appointment can be difficult. We have been working hard to ensure that patients are offered appropriate and timely healthcare by:

> Asking appropriate questions at the point of contact to ensure that patients are signposted to the most appropriate service/clinician.

> Developing additional roles shared across our Torridge Primary Care Network. We now have a First Contact Physio Team, Pharmacy Team and Social Prescribing services available to our patients. All of these services were traditionally provided by the GP’s so this is additional resource for Primary Care.

> Freeing up clinical appointments by offering digital health tools to patients where appropriate i.e. Health Questionnaires for routine monitoring, digital triage etc. Health Pod in waiting room (arriving summer 2022).

> Development of our Minor Illness/Nurse Prescriber/Same day team. We have invested in additional Nurse Prescriber sessions to support our same day team

> Improved telephone reporting software to enable responsive monitoring of our telephone stats

> Regular updates for patients via Social Media on our non attendance rates to encourage timely cancellation of appointments

> Offering patients a choice of face to face or telephone appointments

> Offering more appointments types available to book online

> We have added a new section to our website with a catalogue of Mental Health resources providing patients with more choice around self-help as a first port of call.

> We have invested in a self service Health Pod for our waiting room. This will provide patients with the facility to measure height, weight, blood pressure and complete medical questionnaires. This will free up some capacity for our Health Care Assistants.