GP Patient Survey
The results of the GP Patient Survey 2017 have been published by Ipsis MORI on behalf of NHS England, showing that most GP practices in Liverpool are performing better than most practices in the country.
The GP Patient Survey is an independent survey which is sent out to over a million people across the UK annually, and the results show how people feel about their GP practice.
It assesses patients’ experience of healthcare services provided by GP surgeries, including experience of access to GP surgeries, making appointments, the quality of care received from GPs and practice nurses, satisfaction with opening hours and experience of out-of-hours NHS services and NHS dental services.
Key national findings in this year’s survey include:
- 84.8% described the overall experience of their GP surgery as good
- 72.7% of patients rated their overall experience of making a GP appointment as good
- 84.3% of patients said they were able to get an appointment the last time they tried, and of those, 92% said their appointment was fairly or very convenient
- 92% of patients said they had confidence and trust in the last GP they saw.
Locally, the 92 GP practices based across Liverpool were found to be above the national average of every indicator – meaning they are performing better than most practices in the country.
NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Committee (CCG), the organisation responsible for buying and planning most health services across the city, including GP services – has been delivering a programme to improve access to GP services in the city over the past year.
In April 2016 the CCG introduced a £5.6m investment designed to increase the number of appointments available in practices, which translates to an extra 5,500 appointments across Liverpool every week. It has also been working closely with local GP practices to ensure that the way appointments are booked is using existing resources in the best way.
Dr Rosie Kaur, GP and Clinical Lead for Primary Care at NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said:
“The results of this survey across our 92 GP practices here in Liverpool are really positive overall, showing that most local practices are performing well across a range of key factors that we know are important to patients, such as access to GP appointments and overall patient experience.
“As part of Healthy Liverpool, we’ve done a lot of work to help us understand what patients want from local NHS services – and we know that one of the things that matters most to patients is being able to get a GP appointment quickly and easily, when they need one.
“Whilst we recognise that for some people getting an appointment with a GP remains an issue and that there is still more work to be done, these results are encouraging because they indicate that we are getting it right in at least 85% of cases, and that some of the changes we have made are having a positive impact for patients.”
Cheryl Mould, Primary Care Programme Director for Liverpool CCG added:
“GP practices across the city need to be congratulated for all their hard work and commitment to delivering high quality GP services and improving ease of access for patients.
“Practice staff have been working hard behind the scenes on a range of local system improvements for their patients - such as introducing different methods of consultation, and launching online patient services for things like appointment booking and repeat prescription ordering.”
For more information about the results of Patient Survey for Dovecot Health Centre survey please click here