We have been looking carefully at the results. Though we were of course delighted to see that for all the quantifiable items the practice achieved well above the national benchmark percentage, we are aware that there are areas where we could improve and we thought that you, the patients, might be interested to hear about these and what we feel we can do to address the situation

The main issues that were mentioned were the appointment system, parking, opening hours and the waiting room.

The appointments system.
The majority of patients praised the fact that they could book an appointment immediately they needed one – but a very small minority criticised the fact that they could not make an appointment more than 48 hours in advance.

The only way we can ensure there are enough appointments available to provide immediate access to the patient’s GP of choice is to restrict the release of most of the appointments to the 48-hour time frame. We are reluctant to change a system which seems to suit the majority of our patients.

However we do realise that for people who work or have other constraints on their time this can cause problems. On most days we have early morning appointments starting at 8.40am and we are happy to release these in advance to patients who work. We would also ask that any patients who have practical difficulties with booking within the 48 hour time scale should explain their problems to the receptionists so that we can try to make alternative arrangements.

Finally, we would like to correct one misapprehension which was that patients have to phone between 8.30 and 12.30 to book an appointment. We are happy to take calls at any time the surgery is open.

Opening hours
Quite a few patients would like the practice to open longer hours but there was very little agreement as to what these longer hours should be.

While we can understand your wish to have increased access to the surgery, unfortunately we do not have the capacity in either doctor or reception time to provide this. It would seem that some of the concern about this is due to the change in provision to ‘Out of Hours’ cover that occurred in October 2004. Some patients may not be aware that Solidoc is still providing the out of hours service just as it has done for the last 10 years – but it can now only be accessed via a new call centre which would seem to be a lengthy and complicated process. The practice does have concerns about the operation of this system and we would be interested to have details of any problems patients encounter.

We have discussed opening the surgery over lunchtime but as we use this time to tidy the rooms and clear up after morning surgery the reception desk has to be left unattended. Security issues prevent us from keeping our doors open when there is no-one available to check who is entering the building.

Parking!!!
We are as concerned as you about the lack of adequate parking.

Solihull Council blocked the provision of more parking prior to our moving into Downing Close on the basis that they wanted to discourage the use of cars and promote the use of public transport instead. At about the same time the bus service down Station Road was discontinued!!!

We have been lobbying the PCT (the owners of the building) about the need for extra spaces since we moved in but so far to no avail.

Please notify one of the Receptionists if you have had difficulty parking. It may be that if we are unable to influence the PCT or the Council we may be asking for our patients to lobby direct.

Waiting Room
We were aware that the waiting room became very hot over the summer and we are looking into providing some form of cooling unit in the near future. The patient participation group have already raised some money towards the cost of this. We have to take into account Health and Safety issues so it is important that there will be no moving parts within the reach of children.

We will try to provide more magazines of interest to our male patients in future.

We do have a variety of seats in the waiting room, including one which is higher and wider than the rest for the use of patients who find it difficult to sit on the standard chairs. We would be very grateful if our more able bodied patients would leave this higher chair for the use of patients who need it.

We have sorted out the children’s books and toys and removed any dirty or damaged ones.

Finally, we agree there is no point in having a clock in the waiting room if it does not work – and have had it repaired!!!

Pharmacy
Several patients commented that it would be useful to have a pharmacy in Downing Close but there is little likelihood of this happening. Last year an application to provide one was refused on the basis that there is already very good pharmacy provision within the vicinity.

However, perhaps we can take this opportunity to tell those of you who do not know that if you find it difficult to get down to Downing Close it is possible to hand in repeat scripts at Windridges who will bring them down to the surgery for you and then collect the prescription once it has been signed.