New Royal Primary Care chief discusses challenges facing GP surgeries and efforts to improve patient experience at practices across Chesterfield

Royal Primary Care (RPC) is made up of nine GP practices across Chesterfield, and is part of the Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Some of the locations where RPC run GP surgeries include Ashgate, Grangewood, Grassmoor, Clay Cross and Inkersall.

The Derbyshire Times has spoken with Nate Webber, RPC’s recently-appointed managing director, to learn more about the challenges facing GP surgeries and RPC’s efforts to enhance the patient experience at its practices.

He has laid out their plans in response to feedback on some of their practices from the most recent national GP patient survey. This independent survey, run by Ipsos on behalf of NHS England, saw around 700,000 patients complete a questionnaire asking about their experience at their GP practice.

Nate started by explaining his role as managing director, and said one of his key priorities was to show patients what RPC is currently doing to improve, and their plans to continue that improvement going forward.

He said: “As Managing Director, I oversee the operations of Royal Primary Care (RPC) – this means that I support the team across all our sites to ensure we’re running smoothly, efficiently and effectively. The priority is always safety and care, but I have to consider finance, performance and a host of other things. Every day is different – I’m based at our Grangewood site, though I visit all of our practices weekly.

“Together with Dr Jennie Joyce, our newly appointed Clinical Director as of April 1, we are striving to make things better across the whole of RPC. We have big ambitions – led by our patients and the feedback they provide us.

“I've been managing director since January, but I was head of operations for RPC for the previous two years - so I already have quite a comprehensive understanding of where we are as an organisation and what we need to focus on to improve, not just for patients but for colleagues as well.

“For me, it’s important we’re all here for the same goal – to help patients receive the right care and help. GPs have had a bad rap recently – we understand that people think getting an appointment is a challenge, waiting times on calls are higher than people would like and there is concern – we recognise that and want to support our communities to understand how best to use us, showing what we’re doing to improve and what plans we’ve got for the future.”

Nate discussed the rollout of a new phone system at RPC practices earlier this year - which he said had helped to cut waiting times for patients who were contacting their surgery and ensure that the number of calls being answered had reached its highest ever level.

He said: “The launch of our new phone system in January, Surgery Connect, has been a success in its early stages and was a hugely important improvement project for us, as waiting times on the phones have been a priority for quite some time.

“Thanks to the new system, we're answering more calls than ever before (we answered twice as many in March compared to December) and also missing fewer calls than ever. Waiting times have come down from 22 minutes to around 16 minutes so far, and new features allow patients to understand their queue position, choose from a number of switchboard options to access the right information, and they can request a callback by using the hash key. Our long-term target is to bring that average phone waiting time down to single figures, which will require a lot of work and fine tuning.

“We’re also working with system partners to provide support to complex patients who are high intensity users of healthcare facilities, to see what better support and interventions can be provided. This can be because of all sorts of issues, and we’re keen to support all our patients in the best way.”

Nate said that another aim was to tackle healthcare inequalities across the Chesterfield area - with RPC exploring options to improve access to services for patients in Barrow Hill.

He said: “We have a diverse population across our nine surgeries, where - in some areas - life expectancy is much shorter than acceptable. In Loundsley Green, for example, life expectancy at birth is as low as 73 for men. Addressing and reducing healthcare inequalities - populations being disproportionately affected by lack of access to local health services, transport, childcare and information - is a significant goal for us.

“We're currently exploring possibilities for how we can support communities like Barrow Hill to gain better access to healthcare services. Barrow Hill is an area which lacks immediately available healthcare services and transport links to reach other surgeries in the area, so there is an urgent need to bring better healthcare services to their doorstep.

“I also think it’s important and helpful for our communities to get to know RPC colleagues. All the teams here want to achieve the best outcomes - and we are committed to fostering a positive and respectful environment for both our team and our patients.

“We understand that securing an appointment can sometimes be challenging, and some of the ways we are actively working to ease this process include improving our appointments phone line and working with county partners to address patients who use primary and secondary care services - and therefore appointment slots - at extremely high rates.”

Nate also touched on the issues facing GP practices more widely, with demand for appointments reaching record levels after the pandemic. He said that it was crucial to ensure that patients were able to access appointments, while also helping to direct people to the right service according to their needs.

He said: “The whole UK population is ageing, which means more health problems and dependency on primary care. Since the pandemic, we're seeing more demand for appointments than ever before; our challenge is finding a balance between offering enough appointments and ensuring that people are going to the right service for their needs.

“Some don’t need a GP, they may need a different health professional such as a physiotherapist for joint pain, or a pharmacist for a cough. At RPC, these services can be accessed directly and without the need to see a GP first - you can request a physiotherapist appointment on the phone or online, and many ailments such as UTIs or sore throat can be treated directly at pharmacies using Pharmacy First consultations or over-the-counter medication.

“Knowing who to see regarding a health issue can be quite confusing when there are so many services available, so we've been working with the Trust to support the 'Think Which Service' NHS campaign - so that patients can have the confidence to know whether they need their GP, a nurse, a pharmacist, call 111 or visit A&E.

“We also see hundreds of appointments missed each month - more than 2,000 so far this year. We’re continually driving awareness of why it's important to cancel your appointment when you can't attend or no longer need it - and the ways you can let us know.”

Nate added that RPC receives feedback from hundreds of patient surveys each month, with the data showing that between 85% and 90% of patients were happy with their experiences at RPC practices - although he said they were aiming to achieve a consistent 90% rating.

He said: “The NHS Friends and Family Test survey receives hundreds of responses per RPC practice every month - and is great for providing us with feedback all year round because it is sent to patients immediately after receiving care from us. The really good news? We are consistently seeing between 85% and 90% of patients rating our services as 'Very Good' or 'Good', though we aim to be hitting the 90% mark as standard.

“Each month we hear really heartwarming feedback from patients. The survey results show, on the whole, that our people are doing a lot of things right across our teams but we know there is always more we can do. Our work to bring down phone waiting times addresses a large portion of those negative reviews, and when available we offer slots at our other RPC surgeries if a patient is able to travel slightly further afield. This can ease two pressure points: Unused slots at quieter surgeries and high demand at the busier ones, which reduces wastage of funding and the timeframe for getting seen by a clinician.”