Wrafton House

Patient  Participation Group  (PRG) DES Report
The key objective of the DES is to ensure that patients are involved in decisions about the range and quality of services provided by the practice.
Wrafton House has had a very active and supportive Patient Participation Group for eighteen years but we were very keen to actively encourage a Patient Reference Group to hopefully include a much wider variety of patients who do not have as much time as some members of our PPG.  We hope that in the future they will become more involved with the PPG.
After discussion it was agreed to use the GPAQ Questionnaire Version 3.  
The General Practice Assessment Questionnaire (GPAQ). GPAQ is a patient questionnaire which was developed at the National Primary Care Research and Development Centre at The University of Manchester for the 2003 GP contract. Building on several years of development and testing, GPAQ helps practices find out what patients think about their care. It specifically focuses on aspects of general practice that are not covered elsewhere in the Quality and Outcomes Framework - for example, access, inter-personal aspects of care and continuity of care. (www.gpaq.co.uk)
We have used GPAQ Version 2 several times.  Version 3 has been adapted specifically for the new Direct Enhanced Service.  However, in previous years we were able to input the data ourselves and complete the analysis reports.  GPAQ had arranged for several companies to do the reports and we chose CMI Publishing. We entered the data, which we then sent to CMI Publishing for them to complete the reports on Wrafton House and Northdown Road surgeries.
The questionnaires were handed to all patients who had doctors appointments booked during a two week period in November 2011.  These appointments were both routine and advanced access appointments. Wrafton House and Northdown Road surgeries were both involved in the survey.  

Ethnicity
GPAQ V2 
National benchmarks	GPAQ V2 
	GPAQ V3
Our practice results	PRG Profile	
%white	92.2	81.2	74%	
%Asian/Asian British	3.7	5.0	7%	
%Black/Black British	1.8	5.3	8%	
% Mixed	1.1	1.3		
% Chinese	0.3	0.8		
% Other Ethnic Group	0.9	1.3	10%	

Gender
GPAQ V2 
National benchmarks	GPAQ V2 
	GPAQ V3
Our practice results	PRG Profile	
% female	64.7%	73%	66%	
% male	35.3%	27%	39%	

Long standing Health Condition
GPAQ V2 
National benchmarks	GPAQ V2 
	GPAQ V3
Our practice results	
% long standing health condition	49%	60.3%	

Employment
GPAQ V2 
National benchmarks	GPAQ V2 
	GPAQ V3
Our practice results	
% employed	48.4	38.1	
% unemployed	2.5	6.3	
% in full time education	3.4	0.0	
% unable to work/long term sickness	7.2	12.7	
% looking after home/family	9.6	17.5	
% retired	27.5	20.6	
% other	1.6	1.6	

As the questionnaires were given to all patients who attended for appointments we feel that it would be fair to presume that the breakdown in ethnicity and demographics would be a fair and accurate representation of our practice population. This is confirmed by the numbers in each group.

The practice website is managed by Neighbourhood Direct Ltd and is updated annually along with our practice booklet.   There is already a section on our Patient Participation Group advising that all patients are automatically members of the group  and that they would be more than welcome to join the committee.  At the next publication update we will be adding a section on the Patient Reference Group inviting patients to join by e mail.

Along with the questionnaire each patient was given a slip asking if they would like to be on an e mail list to receive a copy of the survey analysis.  We had a positive response from 120 patients. Some were happy with e mail, others wanted to use the post.

After completion, the required number of questionnaires, 60 per doctor (to allow for the required minimum number of 50 per doctor), the results were entered onto the official spreadsheet.   We then used CMI Publishing Ltd to analyse the results and send us reports on both Wrafton House and Northdown  Road. 

On receipt of the reports Dr Eric Sherrard, a member of the Patient Participation Group,  presented the findings to our in house TARGET session on November 15th 2011.  This session comprised of the partners and our staff.  He gave a very positive response and thanked the doctors and staff for their dedication to all of the patients in both practices.

At the January meeting of the committee members of the Patient Participation Group Dr Sherrard also spoke about the survey and its positive findings.  A copy of his report is enclosed.

The only area which we feel we need to look into is the facility to book and cancel appointments on line.   As it was a relatively small number (19%) we will look at this in detail later in the year.

DES Components

1.	PRG established with 120 patients (plus our already well established Patient Participation Group which has 10 committee members).   All patients who wished to be notified by e mail were sent the summary reports for both Wrafton House and Northdown Road along with the latest newsletter. The other patients who did not wish to participate by e mail and requested to be notified by post were sent the same documents.

2.	Only one response was received by e mail with a comment about a member of the reception team.  This will be dealt with at an in house training session later this year. At the moment we do not have any issues as a priority other than to continue with offering all patients the highest standard of care.

3.	The Patient Participation Group have regular committee meetings which are attended by Dr Constable, the Practice Manager and the Reception Manager. Three members of the committee also attend our Management Team meetings quarterly and any issues which arise are discussed and if necessary acted upon.
We will be e mailing our PRG regularly with newsletters and inviting them to join our PPG.

4.	Our Patient Participation Group will be holding their Annual General Meeting in May 2012.  We will be inviting all members of the PRG to attend this event.  This year the PPG has invited Andrew Beazley who is about to retire from The East and North Herts Trust to come along and speak on the changes in the Trust.

As continuation of the DES, the practice will use a targeted survey for patients on our diabetes register.

Short  Summary of results combining both surgeries

97%  of our patients found our receptionists helpful or fairly helpful

77%  found it easy or fairly easy to get through on the phone

73%  said if they needed they could get an appointment on the same day

82%  say the practice is open at convenient times

95% had total confidence in their GP

91%  say their experience of our surgeries is good, very good or excellent.

93% would recommend us to someone who had just moved into the area

Confirmation of our opening times are as follows:

Wrafton House 
You can telephone the surgery  between  8.00 a.m.  – 6.30 p.m.
The surgery is open between 8.30 a.m. – 6.00 p.m.

Extended Hours  3rd Monday each month 8.30 a.m. -11.0 a.m.  and 
Monday evenings 6.30 p.m.  – 9.00 p.m. except for the Monday prior to the Saturday opening.

When closed Herts Urgent Care covers emergencies
 Telephone  number 03000 333 333

Northdown Road
The surgery is open Monday – Friday mornings 8.30 a.m. -12.30 p.m.
Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings 3.30 p.m.  – 6.00 p.m.

When closed the telephones are answered by Wrafton House reception.