Graham Stuart, Member of Parliament for Beverley and Holderness, welcomes improvements made at the St Nicholas Surgery, Holderness Health in Withernsea.
Last Friday, Graham visited Holderness Health with ward Councillors Lyn Healing and Claire Holmes to discuss improvements at the surgery over the past year and meet patients and staff.
At Holderness Health face-to-face appointments are at 75.6% which compares favourably to data published by NHS Digital showing that 70% of general practice appointments in England are face-to-face.
During the visit, Graham and the ward councillors met staff and patients and heard that improvements to the telephone system had resulted in a reduction in phone waiting times. Graham also heard that since 12 December a GP has been in the telephone reception centre, enabling better triaging for patients when they call the surgery.
Graham said, “Speaking to residents, I know many people like to see a doctor in person and as we recover from the impacts of COVID-19, where face-to-face appointments were rightly limited, it is great to see Holderness Health is now offering in person appointments at a level above the national average”.
Amalia Booker, Chief Executive Office of Holderness Health said “We welcome today’s visit from Graham Stuart MP and local ward councillors and the opportunity to show them first-hand the great work that we are doing as a practice to enhance access for our patients.
“We continue to expand our team of GPs as well as having successfully recruited a number of advanced clinical roles such as first-contact physiotherapists and clinical pharmacists. Equally importantly, we are growing our administrative teams with a wide range of roles to support our clinicians and maximise ease of access to services for our patients.
“We are very pleased to be offering significantly more appointments overall than prior to the pandemic and to have returned the number of face-to-face appointments to pre-pandemic levels.”
Ward Councillor Lyn Healing said “I was particularly interested in being shown the triage system used when a resident phones up to make an appointment. The number of patients having face-to-face appointments with doctors has increased considerably but the health centre is striving to improve those numbers even further.”
Ward Councillor Claire Holmes said, “A lot of work has been done by Holderness Health over the last 18 months, in particular, to provide a more accessible service for patients, and it’s great to hear that they are continuing to monitor such things as call times and adapt procedures to deliver the best service they can to patients.”
