NHS Friends and Friends Test
February 2024
94% of patients rated our service as good or very good
Thank you to the 118 patients who completed the Friends and Family test last month. These patients were asked if they would recommend Blyth Road Surgery to their friends and family and these were the results:
| Very Good | 82% |
| Good | 12% |
| Neither | 1% |
| Poor | 2% |
| Very Poor | 2% |
| Don’t Know | 1% |
We are listening to your feedback
| You’ve been giving us feedback on your care and treatment. You told us: |
| During the period April 2022 to March 2023, we had 951 responses to our Friends and Family survey and 97% of patients stated they would recommend us to others. Many patients commented on how friendly and helpful staff were from Reception to Clinical Staff. Feedback is discussed with all staff at our monthly staff meetings. Any named staff are always highlighted and informed of their feedback. Along with general positive comments and thanks, we have received many compliments relating to specific staff members, which have been greatly appreciated, especially over the last few very difficult years. We all thank you for your continued support and kind words. During 2022, 110 patients responded to the National GP Survey sent out externally to patients. Only 32% of patients said they found it easy to get through on the phone, compared to the national average of 53%. Feedback from our Patient Participation Group was the telephone message was too long and they suggested adding information in while patients are on hold rather than giving it all out at the beginning. |
| We’re listening and this is what we’re doing: |
| We have worked hard to try and increase the ease of getting through on the phone. We increased our phone lines to 8, put more Reception staff on to answer the phones during our busiest times and we have started making some appointments available to book online again. We had a new telephone system installed, which initially caused more problems, but now these have been rectified as well. We have recently done a smaller patient survey in house to see if this figure had improved and 68% of patients said they found getting through on the phone easy. We hope to continue to improve on this figure and will soon be implementing an online service for patients to contact the practice, which should also help with this. We have now shortened the telephone messaged and added extra information in while patients wait for their call to be answered. |