This group was set up a little over a year ago to work with the practice to obtain views from the community so that the practice is aware of key issues that arise from time to time. This function exists in most GP practices across the country. We have members from Wadebridge, Trelights, Polzeath, St Kew, Port Gaverne and Port Isaac as part of our team.
As an example in the past year a lot of patients told us that they had delays in the dispensing of their prescriptions. The practice then engaged consultants and made a lot of improvements which resulted in shorter lead times from the dispensary and the introduction of text messages when your prescriptions are ready. There is a national problem with suppliers but the dispensary team works very hard if necessary to find alternatives so patients get the full prescriptions as quickly as possible
The practice upgraded the telephone system in July 22 and keeps it updated by monthly review with the latest software.
The increasing numbers of patients using the online triage service has directly contributed to the reduction in waiting times for the phones to be answered, and is currently being upgraded.
The PPG recently organised an opinion survey of patients primarily in the 50 to 80+ age range which was distributed at the 2 vaccination clinics held at the Bridge Centre in Wadebridge in October and surveys continued to be distributed until the end of November. We wanted to get a representative and up to date view of what was most important to our patients and some ideas for where best to concentrate our activities for 2025.
Our members have been hard at work analysing the responses and we will be giving full feedback next month when we’ve finished the work completely. In the meantime however I am pleased to say so far a very large proportion of over 80% of the returns rated the practice good or very good.
Well bring you more news next time
John Quilter
Chair, Port Isaac Practice PPG