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Wharfside Patients' Forum have been working with the clinic to run the 2007 patient satisfaction survey.
Forum members -
- re-wrote many of the questions in the questionnaire
- ditched some questions as irrelevant
- volunteered to spend time in the clinic in the week of 12th to 16th March 2007 encouraging other patients in the waiting area to fill in the survey and give their views on the quality and range of services provided at Wharfside.
On the first day, the number of completed questionnaires exceeded the total submitted during the 2006 survey which ran for months with questionnaires left lying around in the reception area for people to fill in.
Forum co-chair Martin Schwarz pointed out that Wharfside Patients' Forum were following on the success of encouraging people to fill in survey forms in the general sexual health clinic. "We knew that if patients were personally handed the survey that the vast majority would take time to fill it in while they waited to see the doctor or nurse".
During the week of 12th to 16th March, 199 surveys were completed with a few patients preferring to take the form with them and hopefully return it later.
The response from just one week of the survey equates to around 10% of Wharfside patients and gives a very representative spread of responses from men, women, Africans and others using the service including a fair number of people attending the Post Exposure Prophylaxis clinic in the hope that they don't have to end up as long term Wharfside patients. In fact by the end of the week there were patients saying they had already filled it in, proving that not all patients are well enough to only visit Wharfside a few times a year - there were quite a few who had been to the clinic twice or three times in the same week.
The analysis of the responses was faster than in 2006, more importantly the results say a lot about what patients really think of the clinic and what ideas people have for making improvements that fit with their needs in 2007 and beyond..
