I am Ian Anderson and have really enjoyed being the chair of the IPG this year.
I was a GP at Avenue House for 35 years and always believed that the patient voice was important in trying to shape good quality care but life as a GP always seemed too busy to be able to do much in this area. I’m sure it’s worse now for our GP’s so it’s been rewarding to try and make things happen from my retirement and position as a patient.
All patients of the Inspire Medical Practice can join the IPG by leaving their e mail with us (detail below). A small committee has formed over the year and these volunteers have offered to give some time to make things work.
What have we learned over 2022?
The NHS is being challenged in many ways. Patients are living longer and many are having to deal with more than one long term condition which threaten them. Covid put a terrible strain on the system and when we realise that there is a major shortage of staff then the difficulties for General Practices are obvious. Demand is increasing and resources are not keeping pace.
The Inspire Practice knows it needs more staff and doctors. In my day an advert for a new doctor would bring in over 30 replies and we would have to spend 2 months deciding whom to choose. These days an advert brings no replies.
Our aims for 2023
The IPG believes that the NHS is our NHS and is worth fighting for. We are convinced that there are many ways that patients can support the NHS especially at their General Practice.
The Practice has agreed to work in partnership with the IPG to try and maintain a high quality of care. An excellent example of this is our recent 3 wishes survey where 800 patients replied to the question ‘if you had 3 wishes to improve an area of care at Inspire Health what would you say?’
This has given us a list of topics that the Practice has agreed to discuss with us over this year and work on possible improvements.
What has been achieved in 2022?
• Better communication between Practice and patients- everything depends on this and the Practice has committed fully. We say a good Practice informs its patients, but an excellent one involves its patients early in the making of decisions.
• Membership has risen from 10 to 800
• Our 3 wishes survey. We already have results happening.
• Interviews with the Practice pharmacy team and the social prescriber to tell patients what can be offered
• We began feeding positive feedback to the Practice team.
• We have developed our notice boards at the Practices because not everyone uses the web.
There is also the new web based appointment/advice system that started at the end of February and we hope this will make considerable improvements in several of the areas mentioned in ‘3 wishes’ (waiting times on phones, difficulty in getting appointment/advice, continuity of care).
To do in 2023
• Keep getting feedback from patients on how the new help/appointment system is working out.
• Continue work on the ‘3 wishes’ list
• Mental health. This we see as our most exciting project for the year. So many people move into crisis situations because they couldn’t access some support when it was needed. There is a lot of excellent support available in the voluntary sector and we will work with these organisations so patients know how to find the help they need when they need it.
• Provide more information on how to get other forms of help eg refer yourself to physio and what can they offer
• Diversity- work on improving how minority and disadvantaged groups can be heard and responded to
• Keep building positive relationships between patients and the Practice team eg a day in the life of the GP/receptionist/pharmacist etc.
• Further improve communication through Facebook. We feel this offers great opportunities.
In summary, a lot has been achieved and it has opened the door to a lot of possibilities. Partnership working with the Practice is working!
None of this will work without the involvement of patients. The IPG is for all patients and the committee needs your opinions and experiences.
We may not be able to reply individually at times but all your comments are read and used in the discussions with the Practice. This is your best way to help make improvements in care happen.
You can comment by e mailing the IPG (detail below) or by leaving a comment at the IPG notice board in the waiting room at the Practices.
The committee will do its best to keep you informed of developments over the year.
Please leave your e mail (if you haven’t already) at ppgroup.ih@gmail.com so you can stay informed.