East Norwich Medical Partnership

Dear Patient Thank you for taking the time to feed back to the practice your thoughts on the current telephone system. The telephone system was upgraded in July this year to enable a call back system. If there are more than 8 callers in the queue, you will be offered the option of a callback. Should you choose to select this option your position in the queue will be saved. On reaching position 1 in the queue you will receive your call back, please be aware depending upon the callers ahead of you this could take between 1 minute and 1 hour. When you receive your call back and goes through to your voicemail this will still count as your callback. The practice will leave a message, but you will need to call again which may involve re-joining the queue. If you receive a call back, but the phone connects and there is no voicemail, your call will be returned to the queue. The practice will attempt to call you twice more, and if you do not answer on the third attempt your place in the queue is lost which will require you to call the practice to restart the process. If you have requested a call back, please be patient, if you call again when already in the queue and request a second call back you will not get a call any quicker, but instead you would have booked two call backs, this only blocks the line for other patients. Since this system has been in place we have received very positive feedback. Yours sincerely Carol Postle Compliance Manager

Dear Patient Thank you for taking the time to feed back to the practice your thoughts on the current telephone system. The telephone system was upgraded in July this year to enable a call back system. If there are more than 8 callers in the queue, you will be offered the option of a callback. Should you choose to select this option your position in the queue will be saved. On reaching position 1 in the queue you will receive your call back, please be aware depending upon the callers ahead of you this could take between 1 minute and 1 hour. When you receive your call back and goes through to your voicemail this will still count as your callback. The practice will leave a message, but you will need to call again which may involve re-joining the queue. If you receive a call back, but the phone connects and there is no voicemail, your call will be returned to the queue. The practice will attempt to call you twice more, and if you do not answer on the third attempt your place in the queue is lost which will require you to call the practice to restart the process. If you have requested a call back, please be patient, if you call again when already in the queue and request a second call back you will not get a call any quicker, but instead you would have booked two call backs, this only blocks the line for other patients. Since this system has been in place we have received very positive feedback. Yours sincerely Carol Postle Compliance Manager

Dear Patient, Thank you for your comment placed on the Healthwatch website. As with most GP practices we have had to change the way we help our patients, we found during COVID 19 we were able to assess and treat more patients via a telephone consultation, and once the pandemic was over, we decided to adopt this way of working. Most GP appointments are telephone consultation in the first instance, the Doctor will call the patient back and if due to clinical need they require to see the patient face to face the Doctor will arrange an appointment usually for the same day. I am sorry you are not aware when joining the practice of the systems in place to support patients. Yours sincerely Carol Postle Compliance Manager

Dear Patient, I am sorry to read of the difficulties you have experienced when contacting the surgery by telephone. I am unable to give you a more detailed answer as delays answering the telephone may occur depending upon the day and time of day the surgery is contacted. As a rule, for a same day appointment patients ring at 8am, depending upon the ‘same day need’ you may be offered a telephone appointment with a clinician or directed to one of the other services who may be better suited to your needs. Once the same day appointments have been allocated, you will be advised to contact the NHS 111 service for general advice, Walk In Centre for minor illness or your local pharmacist for advice/treatment if they are part of the Pharmacy First Scheme. For routine appointments patients can contact the surgery throughout the day. The practice has just upgraded the telephone system which includes a call back system. If there are more than 8 callers in the queue, you will be offered the option of a call-back. Should you select this option your position in the queue is saved. Once you reach call position 1 you will receive your call back. Please beware, depending upon callers ahead of you and your position in the queue your call-back could take anywhere from 1 minute to 1 hour to come through. If you receive your call-back, but the phone goes through to your voicemail, this still counts as your call-back. The practice will leave a message, but you will need to call again which may involve re-joining the queue. If you receive a call-back, but the phone connects and there is no voicemail, your call will be returned to the queue. The practice will try to call you twice more, and if you do not answer on the third attempt, you place in the queue is lost which will require you to call the practice to restart the process. If you have requested a call-back, please be patient, if you call again when already in the queue for a call-back and request a call-back you will not get a call any quicker, but instead will be set to have two call-backs, which only blocks the line for other patients. Since having this system in place, we have received very positive feedback from our callers, we do hope you will find this new system supportive of your needs. Yours sincerely Carol Postle Compliance Manager

Dear Patient Thank you for your feedback. We wish to advise we do not have a call queue length of 45 the longest call queue is at 8am in the morning when patients are requesting same day appointments the maximum length of the call queue currently is 30. To enable a faster answering of calls we have trained more staff to answer the phone first thing in the morning. We do advise if you are ringing for a routine appointment or enquiry to call later in the day. When contacting the surgery, you may be offered an appointment with a Nurse Practitioner or a GP. These appointments are based on clinical need and will be triaged by telephone in the first instance. Should the clinician require to see you face to face they will arrange an appointment at the time of the call. Once the practice has reached capacity or you may be better served to attend another service the receptionist are trained to advise you to contact one of the following; the Physiotherapist directly, for medication queries your local pharmacy, general health advice 111 or for minor illness to attend the Walk In Centre. We are unable to comment regarding the provision of medication from a pharmacy as this is not part of the service we offer. You would need to take this up with the Pharmacy concerned. We have had a very good take up of flu appointments we currently have administered 2518. Appointments are being made available for online booking on a regular basis. We are unable to offer COVID vaccine as we do not have the correct storage facilities to enable a safe cold chain. However, we have been and still sending out the links to the patients entitled to these to book on online. Thank you for your kind words regarding the nursing team. Yours sincerely Carol Postle Compliance Manager

Dear Patient Thank you for your feedback regarding your experience with Thorpe Health Centre. Thorpe Health Centre Surgery is part of the East Norwich Medical Partnership which covers both Sprowston Surgery and Thorpe Health Centre. Patients can be seen at either surgery. All services provided by the practice are the same at both sites, Doctors, Nurse Practitioners, Practice Nurses, and Phlebotomists are based at Thorpe as well as Sprowston. Appointments for either surgery can be booked via the main telephone number just request your preferred surgery. Doctors’ appointments are telephone consultants only in the first instance. We found during COVID this enabled the practice to look after more patients, should the clinician wish to see a patient face to face due to clinical need they will arrange an appointment at the time of the call. Occasionally the reception desk at Thorpe is closed due to reception staff shortages. On these occasions patients are asked by signage to use the self-check in on arrival. The clinicians will always check to see if the patient is waiting if they have not checked themselves in. Currently no patients have been left sitting in the waiting room unattended. Booking of flu appointments via the messaging system has worked very well, to date we have administered 2518 vaccines the majority of which have been booked this way. Thank you for your positive comments regarding the prescription line. Yours sincerely Carol Postle Compliance Manager

Dear Patient Thank you for taking the time to speak with one of our colleagues from the Healthwatch Team. In response to your comment of ringing the practice at 8am, it is difficult to advise as there are so many variables. For a same day need it is best to call at 8am and remain in the queue, we have additional staff trained to answer the phones at this time. For non-urgent enquiries and routine appointments, we advise to ring later in the day. Thank you for your understanding and appreciation of the staff of the practice. Yours sincerely Carol Postle Compliance Manager

Dear Patient, Thank you for your positive feedback given to the Healthwatch Team at the time of your flu vaccination. We are vey pleased you are happy with the changes we have made with the telephone system. We have trained additional staff to answer the phone at 8am which enables the call queue to reduce more quickly. If a same day appointment is not required, it is advised to ring later in the day for general enquiries and routine appointments. Thank you for your comment regarding your blood test appointment this is a service that the practice is not commissioned to provide but offers this service to support our patients. Yours sincerely Carol Postle Compliance Manager

Dear Patient, Thank you for sharing your experience of the surgery with our colleagues from Healthwatch when attending for your flu vaccination. Without further information we are unable to comment on the individuals’ experiences. We do have some directly bookable face to face GP appointments however, most of our patients are telephone triaged by the GP in the first instance. Should the clinician require a face to face, appointment either in the surgery or by the home visiting service this will be assessed at the time of the call. Since initiating the telephone triage during COVID we have been able to look after more patients as we have found we no longer have patients not attending for a pre-booked appointment. Yours sincerely Carol Postle Compliance Manager

Dear Patient, Thank you for you comments given to Healthwatch at your flu clinic appointment. Most GP/Nurse Practitioner appointments telephone triaged with a face-to-face conversation where appropriate. The clinicians can deal with more patients each day than they did before the pandemic. It would be unfair of me to comment on your diagnosis without further information. I am sorry to hear of your results and do hope you continue to make a good recovery. Yours sincerely Carol Postle Compliance Manager

Dear Patient, Thank you for taking the time to speak with Healthwatch at one of our flu clinics. I am sorry to read you don’t feel listened to when speaking with members of the team without any further details I am unable to comment on individual circumstances. Your sincerely Carol Postle Compliance Manager