GP Patient Survery

Introduction

The GP Patient Survey is an independent survey run by Ipsos MORI on behalf of NHS England. The survey is sent out to over two million people across the UK. The results show how people feel about their GP practice.

This report summarises the survey results for Adur Health Partnership. Responses were gathered from 199 patients between 3rd January and 3rd April 2024 and therefore represents approximately 0.54% of our registered practice population. (506 surveys were sent out; 199 surveys were sent back – 39% completion rate.)

Survey results – top level summary

Patient experience is best for:

• Letting patients know what the next steps would be within two days of contacting the practice
• Helpfulness of the reception and administrative teams
• Letting patients know what the next steps would be after contacting the practice
• Having good experience of contacting the GP practice
• The clinicians the patients saw or spoke to were good at considering their mental wellbeing
• Finding it easy to get through the GP practice by phone

Where patient experience could improve:

• Being able to see or speak to their preferred GP
• Involving patients as much as they wanted to be in decisions about the care and treatment
• Clinicians to have all the information they needed about the patient during their last appt

Overall experience: 79% of respondents describe their overall experience with AHP as good (53% describe the practice as very good and 26% as fairly good)

The overall experience summary for our practice (79%), local area (75%) and national (74%).

All results scoring which show higher or same satisfaction levels when compared to local ICS and national averages (in brackets)

• 57% of patients find it easy to get through to AHP by phone (48%/50%)
• 50% find it easy to contact AHP using the website (47%/48%)
• 52% find it easy to contact AHP using the NHS app (45%/45%)
• 93% find the reception and administrative team helpful (85%/83%)
• 91% knew what the next step would be after contacting AHP (83%/83%)
• 94% knew what the next step would be within two days of contacting AHP (94%/93%)
• 80% describe their experience with our practice as good (67%/67%)
• 56% were offered a choice of time of day when they last tried to make an appoint (50%/53%)
• 69% felt they waited about the right time for their appointment (67%/66%)
• 87% say the healthcare professional they saw or spoke to was good at treating them with care and concerns during their last appoint (86%/85%)
• 77% say the healthcare professional they saw or spoke to was good at considering their mental wellbeing during their last appoint (72%/73%)
• 79% describe their overall experience of AHP as good (75%/74%)
• 78% say they have had support from local services or organisations in the last 12 months to help managed their long-term conditions of illnesses (70%/68%)

The results scoring which show lower satisfaction levels when compared to local ICS or national averages (in brackets)

• 29% usually get to see or speak to their preferred clinician when they would like to (41%/40%)
• 10% were offered a choice of location when they last tried to make an appointment (11%/13%)
• 87% say the healthcare professional they saw or spoke to was good at listening to them during their last appointment (88%/87%)
• 90% felt the healthcare professional they say had all the information they needed about them during their last appointment (92%/92%)
• 92% had confidence and trust in the healthcare professional they saw and spoke to during their last appointment (93%/92%)
• 89% were involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their care and treatment during their last appointment (91%/91%)
• 88% felt their needs were met during their last appointment (90%/90%)

Below is the top lever summary, which shows where patient experience is best, and where patient experience could improve. Despite the high satisfaction rating, AHP is slightly below the ICS results.

Where patient experience is highest compared with ICS result:

• 80% of respondents describe their experience of contacting their GP practice as good
  ICS result: 67% - National result: 67%
• 57% of respondents find it easy to get through to this GP practice on the phone
  ICS result: 48% - National result: 50%
• 91% of respondents knew what the next step would be after contacting their GP practice
  ICS result: 83% - National result: 83%

Where patient experience is lowest compared with ICS result:

• 29% of respondents usually get to see or speak to their preferred healthcare professional when they would like to
  ICS result: 41% - National result: 40%
• 89% of respondents were involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their care and treatment during their last general practice appointment
  ICS result: 91% - National result: 91%
• 90% of respondents felt the healthcare professional they saw had all the information they needed about them during their last general practice appointment
  ICS resullt: 92% - National result: 92%

2022/2023 and 2024 comparison

The publication of the 2024 survey results is the start of a new time series for GP Patient Survey. This means that trend data for previous years of the survey is not presented alongside the 2024 results as it would normally be. The 2024 results are not comparable with previous years because of two significant changes which have been made to the survey in 2024:

• New questionnaire - the questionnaire has been updated to make sure it continues to reflect how primary care services are delivered and how patients experience them. However, even for those individual questions where the wording has remained the same, previous analysis has shown that trends cannot be reliably presented.
• Changes to the survey design - the methodology of the survey has changed to an ‘online first’ approach. This is designed to improve response rates and reduce costs. The new approach encourages a higher proportion of online responses, with a paper questionnaire only enclosed in the last postal reminder. Testing has shown that this change in methodology will lead to differences in results which are not due to a change in patient experience, so trends cannot be reliably presented.

Actions

Most of the survey responses confirm patient experience is largely in line with the local ICB or national figure, and in the vast majority of cases, is higher. The main areas of concern could be summarised to ‘Continuity of care’, which are reflected and related to the lower scores in this surey.  These are also reflected in our complaints and concerns trends and Friends and Family Test feedback.

• 29% usually get to see or speak to their preferred clinician (41%/40%)
• 90% felt the clinician they saw or spoke to had all the information they needed about them during their last appointment (92%/92%)
• 89% were involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their care and treatment during their last appointment (91%/91%)

There are a few areas where we will take action, in response to these survey results:

Improve continuity of care

What have we done since the last Patient survey in 2023

• Introduced GP led triage at to all sites (SHC October 2022 and NMC and Manor November 2023)
• Merged the Reception teams to ensure better cross site cover and ensuring staff remain multi skilled (July 2024)
• Continue to promote Collaborative Practice activities (NEW for 2024 – COPD Choir and HOPE bereavement peer support group)