At the Grange, we want to provide the best possible service to our patients. Because of this, we regularly review feedback given by patients and take any necessary action to review and change systems and processes.
Here is what YOU SAID, and what WE DID
Ordering Prescriptions
What You Said:
“We can’t order medications 7-10 days in advance using Online Services”
What We Did:
In September 2022 we asked all of our patients to ensure that they are ordering their medications 7-10 days in advance, allowing adequate time to prevent gaps in medications. However patients informed us that this was not possible to do via Online Services (SystmOnline and the NHS App). We should have addressed this before sending the bulk SMS message to patients. We’re sorry we didn’t do this but are grateful to the patients who let us know. We have now changed the settings to allow patients to order medication 10 days before it is due.
Phone Waiting Times
What You Said:
“It’s difficult to get through on the phones” “The phone waiting times are too long”
What We Did:
Dating back to 2019 the practice started to make changes to improve phone access. These included investing in a new, state of the art phone system and adding unlimited phone lines and messages that inform patients are in the queue. This year, we have recruited more staff and made a huge effort to monitor call performance and are very proud of our new reduced waiting times. We are now consistently meeting our target of having an average wait time of no longer than 3 minutes.
To read more about this, you can visit our Phones Access page.
Face-to-face Appointments
What You Said:
“I can never get to see a GP face-to-face” “I want to be able to book a face-to-face appointment straight away, rather than having to speak to a clinician on the phone first”
What We Did:
During the Coronavirus Pandemic, General Practice services across the UK quickly moved to more remote ways of working for the safety of both patients and staff. In the height of the pandemic, patients were seen face-to-face only when necessary after they had first had a telephone appointment.
However, once Coronavirus restrictions started to lift, the practice quickly put into place directly bookable face-to-face appointments.
Approximately 50% of the appointments provided by the practice are face-to-face. Below is a table showing the number and face-to-face and telephone appointments provided by the practice over the last year:
| Month | Number of face-to-face appointments | Number of telephone appointments |
| November 2021 | 2796 | 2710 |
| December 2021 | 2392 | 2710 |
| January 2022 | 2344 | 2318 |
| February 2022 | 2443 | 2185 |
| March 2022 | 2778 | 2519 |
| April 2022 | 2425 | 2112 |
| May 2022 | 2771 | 2244 |
| June 2022 | 2783 | 2042 |
| July 2022 | 3018 | 2132 |
| August 2022 | 2925 | 1958 |
| September 2022 | 3098 | 2071 |