Strategies for improving GP services in Merton
We produced a report from research carried out locally with patients that would identify improvements, ideas and solutions for GP services.
Summary
We aimed to engage with 120 people and actually reached 209 who fed into this GP services research. We achieved this through holding seven community outreach visits to organisations active within Merton, two workshops that the general public were invited to attend and sent out a questionnaire survey to over 2000 people on our database.
The areas covered: Access to GP services, Information provided at GP services, Out of hours, Use of technology, Urgent care support For ease of reference we have decided to also place the recommendations here, in addition to them following on from the details of the input and feedback for each area within the main body of the report.
Recommendations
- Increased customer care training for surgery staff to improve interpersonal skills
- Increased mental health awareness training for all surgery staff including receptionists and GPs
- Opportunity proactively offered to patients; especially those with long term medical needs, to express a preference for a specific GP. For those patients, clear notes on patient records, easily visible to reception on booking, if patient has a preferred GP.
- Improved transparency
- Greater interaction from reception staff telling people how long the wait is.
