News From the Quantock Medical Centre
This month we are going to focus on our Reception Team and our Volunteer.
Our Reception team are the first people you meet from our Practice when you need some help accessing our services, either face to face when you come to check in for an appointment, to drop off a sample, on the telephone when booking an appointment or asking for your results.
Our Practice is small and our staff are expected to be highly skilled and constantly multi-tasking. Whilst being the welcoming front of house, the reception team work hard behind the scenes too, often pulled in many directions at the same time. As well as booking appointments over the phone, they are dealing with patients, relatives, carers, GPs, Nurses, other staff, other hospitals; face to face, on the phone, via the NHS app, and email.
Booking an appointment at the Practice might sound simple, however the reception team are expected to understand all the different skills of our different clinicians Doctors, Nurses, Health Care Assistants, Specialist Musculo Skeletal Practitioners, Health Coaches, Midwives etc. We have over 60 different types of appointment categories to book patients into, with over 10 different clinicians working from our premises. It really is a lot to remember.
This is why it is important that they ask why you need an appointment in order that you are booked in with the most appropriate clinician, and according to the urgency of your condition. Confidentiality is a key part of everyone’s role at the Practice and is taken very seriously.
They also receive and process all documentation coming into the Practice whether its paper post from Royal Mail, post from other Hospital sites, or electronic.
When asked it was the consensus of the team that the ‘ best part of their job is helping people and the friendly faces from both the patients and the other members of staff who greet them day to day. Being able to offer appointments earlier than is expected and helping someone navigate their way through the ever-complicated health service, solving problems and seeing them light up with relief is always the most rewarding part of the job.’
The receptionists also said ‘we are very lucky in our Practice that we have a lot of patient contact and are able to use our knowledge and skills, are trusted to work independently, and are aware that larger Town Practices may not have the level of patient contact and autonomy that we have in our roles so that we are able to offer a more personal element to every interaction’.
The worst part of the job is ‘ when the demand is so high that there are no appointments available on the day and patient have to wait over a week for the next available routine GP appointment, as we want to help as much as we can’.
The reception team generally handle over 120 – 180 phone calls a day and we are seeing between 100 – 160 appointments a day through the surgery.
The waiting time for a general routine GP appointment is between 1 – 2 weeks, obviously if the need if more urgent we will be able to prioritise you for on the same day or next day appointment.
Demand is ever increasing, it is not necessarily about the number of patients we have registered with us as this stays about the same each year at approx. 4200, but that people s expectations to be seen immediately are increasing in our very ‘now’ society.
I would like to give a big thank you to the reception team for all the hard work they put into the surgery every day and they really do appreciate your kindness and patience when accessing our services.
I would also like to give a huge thank you to Lucille who kindly Volunteers at the Dispensary Hatch on an afternoon. She is doing a brilliant job handing out patient medications this has been a huge help to the dispensary and means they can get on with processing medication requests. She kindly donates her time to help the surgery so please remember to treat her with kindness and patience.
At the Quantock Medical Centre, we strive to provide the best care for each person, and we have been looking at Reasonable Adjustments for our patients. If you are aware that you may need a reasonable adjustment to be made in order for your to access our services please do let us know; whether its bit of support, a little more time, or information in a written format etc, please let the reception team know and we can figure out the best way to help.
And last but not least….
Diabetes UK are holding a type 1 diabetes support group for those interested. It is for those living with or connected to type 1 diabetes. They meet monthly, the next one being Saturday the 18th of July. They happen 10:30-12:00 at The Cozy Club, Hunts court, Corporation St, Taunton, TA14AW. For more information, contact your local Diabetes UK volunteer – [email protected]
Helen Stacey Practice Manager
