Health and Care Experience Survey 2015/16 - National Results

7 GP Practices - Care

Summary

• In general, patients' experiences of the care they received at their GP practice remained stable with the previous survey. The overall positive rating of care and treatment remained at 87 per cent.
• Patients continued to be highly positive about their experiences in consultation with doctors and nurses, with responses slightly more positive for nurses.

Introduction

7.1 The Charter of Patient Rights and Responsibilities was introduced through the Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011 ^[16] and sets out what patients can expect when they use services and receive care from the NHS in Scotland. It also details what the NHS in Scotland expects of patients in return. It aims to support good communication between patient and their carers and health staff in order to deliver high quality, person centred, effective and safe care. This is to empower and support people in their own self-management and self-care where relevant.

7.2 This survey asks a series of questions on experiences of consultation with doctors and nurses, which encompass a number of these aspects of care.

Doctors

7.3 Of patients who had visited their GP surgery in the last year, 92 per cent had seen a doctor.

7.4 Patients were asked how much they agreed or disagreed with six statements about the last time they saw a doctor at their GP surgery:

• The doctor listened to me
• I felt that the doctor had all the information needed to treat me
• The doctor took account of the things that matter to me
• The doctor talked in a way that helped me understand my condition and treatment
• I felt confident in the doctor's ability to treat me
• I had enough time with the doctor.

7.5 In general the responses were highly positive. The lowest scoring statement (that the doctor 'took account of the things that matter to me') still received a response of 87 per cent positive, whilst the highest scoring statement ('the doctor listened to me') received 95 per cent positive (Table 1).

7.6 The results for five of these questions have remained steady since the previous survey. The only question to have changed to statistically significant degree relates to having 'enough time with the doctor', which has dropped by one percentage point (Table 1).

7.7 This is interesting in the context of worsening of access scores, as time with the doctor is something that could conceivably be affected by increased demand.

Table 1: Summary results of questions about doctors

Statement	Strongly agree/agree (%)	Neither agree nor disagree (%)	Disagree/strongly disagree (%)	Change from 2013/14
The doctor listened to me	95	3	2	0
I felt that the doctor had all the information needed to treat me	89	7	4	0
The doctor took account of the things that matter to me	87	10	3	0
The doctor talked in a way that helped me understand my condition and treatment	90	7	3	0
I felt confident in the doctor's ability to treat me	90	7	4	0
I had enough time with the doctor.	88	7	5	-1

Nurses

7.8 Of patients who had visited their GP surgery in the last year, 74 per cent had seen a nurse.

7.9 Equivalent statements were asked for nurses as were asked for doctors:

• I felt that the nurse listened to me
• I felt that the nurse had all the information needed to treat me
• The nurse took account of the things that matter to me
• The nurse talked in a way that helped me understand my condition and treatment
• I felt confident in the nurse's ability to treat me
• I had enough time with the nurse.

7.10 As in previous surveys, responses for nurses were highly positive, and as in previous survey nurses received slightly more positive responses than Doctors for equivalent questions (Figure 11).

Figure 11: Percentage of patients strongly agreeing/agreeing with statements regarding doctors and nurses

7.11 The most positive result for nurses was that 96 per cent of respondents agreed that they had enough time with the nurse, eight percentage points higher than the equivalent figure for doctors (Table 2).

7.12 Results for nurses showed a similar pattern to those for doctors, in that they remained steady compared to the previous survey with the 'things that matter to me' statement rated the least positively (Table 2).

Table 2: Summary results of questions about nurses

Statement	Strongly agree/agree (%)	Neither agree nor disagree (%)	Disagree/strongly disagree (%)	Change from 2013/14
The nurse listened to me	95	4	1	0
I felt that the nurse had all the information needed to treat me	93	5	2	0
The nurse took account of the things that matter to me	90	9	2	0
The nurse talked in a way that helped me understand my condition and treatment	91	7	2	0
I felt confident in the nurse's ability to treat me	94	4	2	0
I had enough time with the nurse.	96	3	1	0

Patient involvement in decisions about their care and treatment

7.13 Patients were asked whether they were involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their care and treatment.

• two per cent of patients had not been involved and had not wanted to be.

7.14 Of those that had wanted to be involved:

• 62 per cent of patients stated that they were definitely involved as much as they wanted to be;
• 33 per cent answered they had been involved to some extent;
• five per cent answered they had not been involved and would have liked to have been.

7.15 These results are very similar to the previous survey and therefore continue to suggest that over a third of individuals are not involved as much as they would like. The bulk of these are involved 'to some extent'.

How patients are treated by staff

7.16 Respondents were asked whether they agreed with two overall statements regarding their treatment by staff:

• I am treated with respect
• I am treated with compassion and understanding

7.17 92 per cent of patients agreed or strongly agreed that they were treated with respect, which is the second successive modest increase in positive scoring for this question.

7.18 85 per cent of patients agreed or strongly agreed that they were treated with compassion and understanding. This also represents a modest increase from the previous survey (Table 3).

Table 3: How are you treated by the staff at your GP practice

Statement	Strongly agree/agree (%)	Neither agree nor disagree (%)	Disagree/strongly disagree (%)	Change from 2013/14*
I am treated with respect	92	6	2	0.4
I am treated with compassion and understanding	85	12	3	0.7

*figures in this column are reported to one decimal place in order to prevent a significant change being presented as '0'

Overall experience of care

7.19 Patients were asked to rate their overall experience of the care provided by their GP surgery.

7.20 87 per cent of patients rated their overall experience of care by the GP surgery as excellent or good, this is the same as in the previous survey. This 'overall' assessment remaining static is unsurprising given that many of the more detailed questions regarding care and treatment questions have also remained similar to the previous survey.

Figure 12: Overall rating of care and treatment provided by GP practice (%)