At School Lane Surgery, we believe in being open about the work taking place behind the scenes every day and sharing how we continue to support our growing patient population.
During May, our teams continued to provide thousands of appointments, process prescriptions, answer patient enquiries and respond to online requests, all while maintaining high levels of patient satisfaction.
Although May included two Bank Holidays and fewer working days than many other months, the surgery still delivered over 6,200 appointments and issued almost 33,000 prescription items. This demonstrates the significant volume of work undertaken by both our clinical and administrative teams each and every day.
One of the most encouraging aspects of this month’s data is that our average phone wait time remained at just 6 minutes for the third consecutive month. Maintaining this improvement while managing thousands of patient contacts is a testament to the hard work of our reception and administration teams.
We also continue to see strong use of our online services, with more than 4,300 online requests received during May. Digital access provides patients with an additional way to contact us and helps ensure requests are directed to the most appropriate member of the team.
Patient feedback remains extremely positive, with our Friends & Family Test score holding at an impressive 97%. We are grateful to everyone who takes the time to provide feedback, whether positive or constructive. Every comment is reviewed and helps us understand what we are doing well and where we can improve.
Perhaps the most positive improvement this month was the reduction in missed appointments. Following an increase in April, DNAs fell significantly in May, with only 169 appointments lost, down by 88 from April. This means more appointments were available for patients who needed them and helps us make the best possible use of valuable clinical time. Thank you to everyone who remembered to cancel appointments they no longer required.
As always, while we know there is always more work to do, we remain committed to improving access, delivering safe and effective care, and being transparent about the challenges and successes of modern general practice.
