Leesbrook Medical practice invited Healthwatch Oldham to carry out an engagement exercise with their patients to understand their views on the quality of the matron service being provided by the practice.
Community Matrons aim to support patients who have complex long-term conditions and may currently have a high-intensity use of the health care system. Through their role, Matrons provide advanced specialist nursing care, support patients to remain at home longer and enable them to have more choices about their health care. Matrons, work proactively with patients and carers to coordinate the individual health and social care a patient needs
Summary
In Spring 2022 Leesbrook Surgery approached Healthwatch Oldham to undertake a review via engagement with their patients. This was completed through a survey which the practice helped promote and publicise. The engagement with patients was done to understand their views around their matron service. Matron’s working for the practice, are experienced nurses, who work closely with GPs, District Nurses, and other community-based services, like therapists for example. Matrons can be experts in assessing complex medical problems and supporting people who live with long-term conditions. In 2019 the survey made staffing changes to the Matron Service, and from having a part-time offer this changed to full-time offer. Given the challenges around Covid-19, this engagement work couldn’t have taken place sooner given the sheer pressure facing primary care, and urgent competing priorities.
Patients who took part in the survey gave several reasons for using and being referred to the matron service facilitated by Leesbrook Surgery. Respondents, circumstances such as following up on test results, needing to discuss new medication and a partner needing help with the care of their husband because he was suffering from dementia and Parkinson’s disease. Two different family members shared that they were able to make a self-referral for their loved ones, one patient was recovering from a stroke and the other had just been diagnosed with dementia.
Engagement focused on finding out what patients’ experiences were of the service on the ground given the changes that had taken place, and to ascertain for the surgery if the service was impactful, as well as looking for any obvious areas for improvement.
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