Whitefield Patient Forum

Whitefield Patient Forum was formed in October 2009.  The forum consists of patient members of different backgrounds as well as staff members to help patients take responsibility of their own health and to provide strategic input and advice to the practice.  The purpose of forming a patient forum in the practice was:

• to give practice staff and patients the opportunity to discuss topics of mutual interest in the practice
• to provide means for patients to mae positive suggestions about the practice and specific conditions as an 'expert' or 'experienced patient'
• to encourage health education activities within the practice
• to develop self-help projects to meet the needs of fellow patients such as befriending; help with transport; and bereavement support
• to act as a representative group that can be called upon to influence the local provision of health and social care

The patient forum hold meetings every quarter at the practice.  Patients can write to the forum if they have any particuar concerns or suggestions they would like the forum to discuss and come up with a solution. Patients should write to:-

Pauline Stuttard; Chair Whitefield Patient Forum; Whitefield Health Care; Yarnspinners PHCC; Carr Road; Nelson; BB9 7SR. 

Whitefield Patient Forum Group Members

The following are the members of the patient forum:-

Pauline Stuttard            :-   Chairperson

Imtiaz Ahmed               :-   Deputy Chairperson

Susan Roberts              :-  Secretary

Khurshid Afsar

Mohammed Bashir

Julie Haynes

Rukhsana Amin

Harry Carr

Kelly Dawson

Natalie Ome

Patients can contact the patient forum by writing to:-

Pauline Stuttard; Chairperson Whitefield Patient Forum; Whitefield Health Care; Yarnspinners PHCC; Carr Road; Nelson; BB9 7SR

Since the formation of the Whitefield Patient Forum, the group members have worked on various projects to improve patient services at the practice.  The following is a briefing of how the patient forum  have been involved to make a difference:-

October 2009

The forum helped the practice with the Annual Charity Event at the health centre.  Group members helped with food preparation; being in charge of various stalls etc.  A total of £1106 was raised for Breast Cancer.

May 2010

After receiving numerous verbal comments about the practice telephone system, this was taken to the patient forum in May 2010.  The forum undertook an analysis of the telephone system and realised that action needed to be taken to make the service better and more efficeint for patients.  They came up with the idea of having an automated telephone system wherby patients would be given the option to 'press' the relevant button for the service they require, therefore not getting an engaged tone all the time.  The practice automated telephone system was launched in August 2010.  The forum designed a patient information leaflet to inform patients of the change.

December 2010

In a patient forum meeting in December 2010, certain members raised concern over the telephone triage service available to patients.  Numerous patients had made comments to reception staff about the triage service not being available on Fridays.  The patient forum undertook an in-house patient survey - a total of 100 questionnaires were handed out to patients by reception staff week commencing 13 December 2010.  A total of 95 questionnaires were returned.  The results of the survey were discussed by the members at a followup patient forum meeting held in February 2011.  It was obvious from the results that action needed to be taken.  After discussion the patient forum made the following recommendations for implementation of change:

• to change the nurse triage service to be available Monday; Tuesday;Thursday between the hours of 9am until 11:30am and Wednedays between the hours of 11am until 1pm.
• to change the nurse triage service from emergency triage to routine triage from 9am until 11:30am.

The recommendations were taken to the Business Manager by the Chairperson and Susan.  The Business Manager agreed with the recommndations and gave the 'go ahead' to the patient forum for the implementation of change.  The patient forum devised a patient leaflet, informing the patients of the change to the triage service. 

The change was implemented at the end of February 2011.

The results of the patient survey can be seen at Triage Service Survey Results