Introduction

Beginning in January 2012, Great Staughton Surgery is taking part in a project to improve Patient Participation, via a Directed Enhanced Service (DES). This is a two-year project, effective from 1 April 2011 until 31 March 2013 involving surgeries across England and will involve two surveys, one in January and February 2012 and the final survey in January and February 2013.

Key Objectives

The purpose of the project is to ensure that patients are involved in decisions about the range and quality of services provided by Practices and, over time, commissioned by their practice. It aims to encourage and reward practices for routinely asking for and acting on the views of their patients. This includes patients being involved in decisions that lead to changes to the services their practice provides or commissions, either directly or in its capacity as gatekeeper to other services. The outcomes of the engagement and the views of patients will be published on the practice website shortly after the first survey in January 2012.

Both Surveys will be based on patients' access to practice services, and associated services provided for patients.  Access has many dimensions; and will concentrate on the population of our rural community.

Details of access arrangements (including opening hours) should be made widely available to the population to enable patients to exercise choice.

As we have an establlished Patient Participation Group (PPG), Great Staughton Surgery will work alongside members of their Group to establish the views and priorities for possible change and result in an agreed action plan going forward.

Our survey will concentrate on the range of areas most important to the Practice, which include access to services including opening times, ability for patients to book ahead, ability to be seen quickly, telephone answering, patients’ experience of the treatment and service they receive, the physical environment in the surgery and other issues specific to each practice close to home as possible.

Implementation 

There are a number of key steps (mainly annual) to this two-year project, namely the surgery is:

• Developing a way to gain the views of patients and enables the practice to obtain feedback from the practice population.
• Agree areas of priority with the Patient Particapation Group (PPG) and staff.
• Collate patient views through the use of survey.
• Provide the PPG with an opportunity to discuss survey findings and reach agreement on changes to services through an action plan (which will be published on this Surgery webpage during February / March 2012).
• Publicise the agreed actions taken and subsequent achievement of the Surgery.

If you would like to be involved in the Great Staughton Survey, please contact Loraine Harris on tel: 01480 860770 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

You can download the Action Plan using this link: PRG Survey Action Plan Feb 2012