What you told us and the changes we are making:
1. Waiting Time
Most GP Practices experience issues with waiting times. This has been improved over the years but unfortunately, even after putting in measures to reduce the wait times, we still find days where wait times are unavoidable. It could be an emergency or sometimes issues are identified during the consultation that weren’t planned for when booking but have to be dealt with straight away. Sometimes people just need a little more care. We know waiting can be frustrating but here are a few things we can do together to keep the waiting times as minimal as possible:
– Call ahead and see if your doctor is running on time. This gives reception an opportunity to gauge how late the doctor is running and let you know what time to arrive meaning less of a wait.
– Let reception know when booking if you think you may need a longer appointment. This helps us schedule the day accordingly and reduces the chance of appointments running overtime.
2. Seeing doctor/nurse of choice
We understand how important it is for patients to feel secure with their healthcare provider and over time build a healthy doctor/patient relationship as different doctors suit different patients. We know sickness never shows up when it’s convenient so to accommodate this we have added extra ‘reserved appointments’ to the schedule. Reception has also begun actively asking patients after their appointment if they would like to book in again to see the same doctor. We do encourage patients to try and get to know at least 2 of our doctors as this does make it easier when one doctor is on leave, sick or fully booked, ensuring you still have the option of seeing someone you are already comfortable with.
3. After Hours Service/Obtaining a Home Visit
Being a busy Practice, our doctors are often unable to attend to patients outside of their rostered work hours at the clinic unless there are extenuating circumstances. Being careful not to overload our doctors, we have agreements in place with other services to make sure our patients are taken care of outside of Practice hours. This includes National Home Doctors Service contactable on 137425 (13sick) and Hello Home Doctor Service contactable on 134100 who are both after hours medical services in the South Brisbane/Logan area. Home visits are offered for existing patients only and at the doctor’s discretion.
We recently had a Practice meeting to discuss your feedback and ensure all our staff and doctors are aware of your concerns moving forward. We are taking action as mentioned and would like to take this opportunity to say we appreciate your collaboration in helping us improve our service.
