Friends and Family Test (FFT) Results December

Some very positive results again for our December FFT. Thank you to everyone who responded.

Q: Thinking about your GP practice. Overall, how was your experience of our service?

  • Very Good 191
  • Good 38
  • Neither good nor poor 7
  • Poor 6
  • Very poor 5
  • Don’t Know 1

The FFT allows free text comments. Although a vast majority of feedback was very positive, we picked out some themes where patients fed back there was room for improvement. Please see below:

  • More appointment availability – We currently employ 3 full time GPs and 2 prescribing ANPs. We hope to employ further GP cover this April. Unfortunately due to a combination of funding and lack of space in our building we are limited to how many clinics we can provide at this practice.
  • Reception team – We had a handful of comments about our reception team. We have a wonderful team at CCMG. As you can imagine our staff unfortunately do take quite a bit of abuse from some patients about the wait on the call queue and then for an appointment. This is completely out of their control and sometimes a shift covering phones can be quite gruelling. It could be that you are the next person they answer the phone to and they might not be their usual bubbly self. We do try to support our team as much as possible and operate a zero tolerance policy. Of course if you feel the member of the team has been rude or unhelpful to you, please ask to speak to the Practice Manager in that day.
  • GPs running late – We hold 10 minute GP appointments at CCMG. This is to try and fit in as many patients as safely possible. Unfortunately we do find that some patients ask the GP to address more than one issue at their appointment which then can double the amount of time they are in the consultation. Please ask for a double appointment if you wish to discuss more than one issue. We have some patients who attend and may need admitting to hospital or referring on to another team such as the crisis team if their issue is life threatening. We also have patients attend the desk with life threatening issues such as chest pain which the GP may be interrupted to deal with and this cause some delay for which we apologise for. Following FFT feedback we have asked our reception team to try and keep an eye on any clinics running late and alert those patients in the waiting room so they stay updated.
  • Telephone queues – we understand there will always be a rush first thing in the morning. We encourage patients to sign up to online access so they can see the same appointments our reception team can and book in online for GPs, ANPs and certain Nurse appointments. If your issue is urgent then please telephone the practice as we operate a triage system for urgent problems with our on call GP that day.

Thank you.