Improving Patient Access at Bridge View Medical Group

Background

Bridge View Medical Group’s 2025 NHS annual patient survey highlighted dissatisfaction with access and with patients’ experience of contacting the surgery. The results identified a clear need to better understand what was making access difficult and where practical improvements could be made. The practice asked us to gather more detailed insights directly from patients so that its response could be shaped by people’s experiences.

Listening to patients

At the practice’s request, we visited the surgery on four separate occasions. With support from members of Bridge View's Patient Participation Group (PPG), we spoke directly with 95 patients, creating an independent and accessible route for people to explain, in their own words, the barriers they experienced when contacting and using the practice. We compiled the individual experiences and identified the recurring issues behind the national GP survey results. By sharing the findings with the practice, and through the practice’s presentation of the findings to its Patient Participation Group in December 2025, the patients’ voice reached those able to influence how services were delivered.

The combined feedback gave the practice a clearer evidence base for deciding where change was needed, helping it focus on practical issues patients had raised about staffing, appointment routes and privacy. In response, the practice introduced the following changes:

• Increasing reception staffing during peak times to strengthen the practice’s response when demand is highest.
• Promoting the different appointment-booking options more clearly so patients better understand how they can contact the practice. This helped to free up busy telephone lines for those unable to contact the practice via other available methods.
• Introducing a Queue Buster callback service, allowing patients to receive a callback when they are closer to the front of the queue rather than remaining on hold.
• Enhancing digital access through a 24/7 chatbot on the practice website, providing information, signposting and support outside of normal opening hours.
• Rearranging waiting-area seating to improve privacy for patients.

In addition to these service improvements, the practice has successfully expanded its clinical workforce since the survey was undertaken. Four new salaried GPs have joined the practice, alongside the recruitment of a Student Nurse Associate, helping to increase capacity and support timely access to care.

Patient involvement has remained central throughout the process. The Patient Participation Group (PPG) was consulted during both surveys, ensuring patient perspectives informed the work from the outset. Feedback from the most recent PPG meeting did not identify any significant concerns, providing additional assurance that the changes made by the practice are having a positive impact.