Patient Friends

Any patient that attends the surgery, or contacts the surgery by telephone and has any concerns or issues that they are unhappy about , or they have experienced something that has gone wrong for them, they will now be helped by our “PATIENT FRIENDS”.  We want the patient to have a point of contact at the practice where they can voice their concerns or deal with any issues they may have, and to know that we are listening and that changes will be made if need be.  

When the patient approaches reception either in person or by telephone, the receptionist will immediately explain to the patient that Beacon Primary Care has appointed three key members of staff, specifically to help the patient with any issues or concerns they may have. The idea is that the patient will have direct contact with a member of staff to deal with the issue and follow it through from beginning to end.

The “Patient Friend” will take all the details from the patient and will try to deal with the issue there and then.  If this is not possible the patient will be assured that the “patient friend” will have a thorough look at the issue and will agree a convenient time to get back to the patient with an outcome or explanation.

The patient friend will log each concern onto a spreadsheet under its category or nature of concern where we will then be able to track and monitor where we are having problems. We will then be able to relook at our systems in place and make any relevant changes.

We have 3 dedicated patient friends across the site you can contact by phone or call into the surgery and ask to speak to them.