Patients remain positive about their GPs

The majority of patients responding to the latest GP Patient survey have given positive feedback on the services their GPs provide.

The GP Patient Survey 2017 compiled responses from more than 800,000 people on access to GPs, making appointments, the quality of care received, satisfaction with opening hours and out-of-hours NHS services. The survey found confidence and trust in GPs remains extremely high at 91.9%, while 77.4%would recommend their GP surgery to someone who has just moved to the local area. More than 80%of patients were also able to get an appointment the last time they tried.

The survey includes responses on the use of online GP services and indicates an increase in overall awareness in the last year with 36.1% of respondents aware their practice offers online appointments and 34.1% aware of being able to order repeat prescriptions.

The message from responses to the sections ‘Managing Your Health’ and ‘Care Planning’ is less clear. Over half of the patients state they have a long standing health condition (53.5%) and of those, 63.3% say they receive support. 92% of all patients say they are confident in managing their own health. A small proportion of patients have care plans (3.2%) but of those patients only around 70% say they helped to put the plan together and a similar proportion say they use the plan to manage their day to day health.

This would suggest that further progress could be made to support patients with long standing health condition in line with the GP Forward View aim to support self-care.

In light of the real pressures that have increased in primary care, these remain positive findings but, as Dr. Arvind Madan, Director of Primary Care for NHS England says the findings also ‘reinforce the case for investing in and strengthening primary care’

See the national, CCG and practice results on the GP Survey website.

September 2017