This visit was undertaken as a direct result of feedback received from the local community.
Healthwatch Barking and Dagenham received consistent feedback from local people about access to GPs in the area. Key points raised included access to
urgent GP Appointments, only speaking to the GP about one issue at a time and staff conduct.
One of the practices highlighted was Heathway Medical Centre. Healthwatch Barking and Dagenham undertook the visit to gain a clearer picture of the issues that patients
share with us.
Enter and View
Enter & View is carried out under Section 221 of the Health & Social Care Act 2012. It imposes duties on certain health and social care providers to allow authorised representatives of local Healthwatch organisations to enter premises and carry out observations for the purposes of Healthwatch activity.
Healthwatch can enter certain health and social care premises to view the care being provided. This includes premises such as hospitals, care homes and doctors surgeries etc.
Enter and Views can be announced or unannounced.
During the visit Authorised Representatives observe and speak to service users about their experiences of the visited home or ward in order to collect evidence of the quality and standard of the services being provided. We also speak to staff and relatives.
The next step is to write a report which gives an authoritative, evidenced based feedback to organisations responsible for delivering and commissioning services. Those responsible for the service are expected by law to respond back in 21 working days. The reports are then made public.
Heathway Medical Centre
Date of Visit: 20/11/2018
Laburnum Health Centre
Date of Visit: 01/11/2018
Date Published: 11/01/2019
Healthwatch representatives felt that this was a positive visit based on feedback provided by patients. The triage service seems to work well for the practice as well as reducing the waiting times that patients have to wait for appointments.
Compared with other GP Practices that Healthwatch has visited, the waiting times this practice are not as long. As representatives spoke with a tiny proportion of the registered patients, that consideration should be taken with some caution, given that there are recent negative comments about the service online.
Hedgemans Medical Centre
Date of Visit: 21/08/2018
Date Published: 01/11/2018
Healthwatch carries out Enter & View Visits to monitor services based on feedback received from the public. This year, one area of service that Healthwatch Barking and Dagenham is focusing on for patients’ experiences is local GPs.
This visit is part of a programme of visits and looks at areas of service that include:
- Appointment Waiting Times
- Consultation Times
- Staff Conduct
- Urgent appointments
- Quality and standards of information
Five Elms GP Practice
Date of Visit: 16/07/2018
Date Published: 03/09/2018
The purpose of the visit was to observe and engage with patients who access the services at Five Elms Medical Practice.
The main areas looked at were: Access to services Care and treatment Staff conduct
The findings showed that although the surgery had difficulties, patients acknowledged that some improvements had been made in recent months.
However, there were areas of concern which have been highlighted within the report.
Tulasi Gp Practice Enter and View
Date of Visit: 11/06/2018
Date Published: 17/09/2018
Cherry Orchard Nursing Home
Date of Visit: 15/01/2018
Date Published: 11/05/2018
This visit was undertaken as a direct result of feedback received from individuals from the local area who knew people using this service.
The following areas were highlighted:
• Some residents not being changed quickly enough after soiling themselves – concerns about dignity.
• Residents often left to sit in an area with a TV on without any personalised activity to stimulate them.
• Availability of staff to support and respond to the needs of residents in a timely way.
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Lifeline House
25 Neville Road
Dagenham, Essex RM8 3QS
