Enter and View Report: Tow Law Surgery

Our report looks at the findings from when our authorised representatives visited Charlton House, Tow Law Surgery.

Two of our Authorised Representatives carried out 20 individual conversations with patients and staff, using a set of appreciative questions to give people the opportunity to describe good practice they had experienced or seen- no surveys were completed prior to the visit.

A representative observed activity and spoke to people during our four hour visit, to collect their own independent impressions of the practice and its services, which they recorded during and after the visit, and a private space was available if patients felt the need to talk in confidence to us.

Recommendations

  • Retaining the procedure around appointments was a priority for patients as they felt the present system was, and is, generally good and you are able to get an appropriate appointment. They valued being able to get a prompt appointment and that the doctor/patient relationship was good
  • Patients at this practice valued having long standing GP’s at the surgery. There were several users who expressed that, although for some, another surgery was more local to them, they chose to remain registered at Tow Law as their experience here was much more positive here
  • We were told that in terms of improvement, users were generally happy and suggested that nothing should be changed. However people said that it was “nice to have friendly people around to chat to” whilst waiting for their appointment, suggesting that there is not normally social interaction at the surgery
  • There were some positive aspects observed with regard to the layout of the surgery such as a box for patient feedback, list of prescribed medicines, pictures displayed and good lighting
  • However there was an overpowering amount of information and publicity displayed. Potentially better management of information may be more effective and useful to patients
  • The introduction of a water machine would be welcomed and there was a lack of privacy at reception, resulting in people overhearing conversations
  •  The most obvious barrier we observed was the difficulty to speak to reception staff because of the Perspex screen/talk panel, this made it difficult to have any social interaction between patients and staff and this came across in some of the comments

You are treated with dignity, listened to and things are clearly explained

Downloads

If you need this information in a different format please contact us:

healthwatchcountydurham@pcp.uk.net

0800 304 7039

Download Report

You might also be interested in