Patient Experience survey of GP and local nhs services 2011/12 Volume 1: National Results

6 GP Practices - Medicines

Summary

6.1 86 per cent of patients were prescribed medicines at their GP surgery in the last twelve months and most had a good understanding of, and access to, these medicines.

Introduction

6.2 Medicines are the most frequently used intervention in healthcare. In primary care, there are some 90 million prescriptions dispensed each year with an annual drugs bill of around £1 billion⁶ (around 10% of the annual healthcare budget).

6.3 Policies centre on promoting a healthier Scotland, and that everyone can access the medicines they need and make choices about managing and improving their health.

6.4 Importantly, more effective medicine use can help

• deliver better care outcomes for patients
• reduce the incidence of avoidable hospital admissions and
• improve the efficiency and effectiveness of treatment.

6.5 Central to this is supporting the patient with the right level of information and advice in taking his/her medicine as prescribed by a doctor or other trained healthcare prescribers (such as a pharmacist or specialist nurse). This is an objective common to a range of healthcare professionals, including GPs and community pharmacists / chemists and aims to improve health outcomes as well as reduce waste in prescribed medicines.

6.6 We reviewed the statements in the 2011/12 survey and added the following two new statements:

• It was easy enough for me to get my medicines
• I took my prescription as I was supposed to.

6.7 We also changed the way we asked this question, moving from asking how often patients had experienced each of the statements during the year, to asking how much they agreed or disagreed with them for the last time they were prescribed medicines. Despite these changes, we have compared results with the previous survey and the results are very similar. Positive responses ('always/most of the time' and 'strongly agree/agree') were compared.

Statements about medicines

6.8 Patients were asked how much they agreed or disagreed with six statements about the last time they had been prescribed medicines at their GP surgery. The six statements were:

• It was easy enough for me to get my medicines
• I knew enough about what my medicines were for
• I knew enough about how and when to take my medicines
• I knew enough about possible side effects of my medicines
• I would know what to do if I had any problems with my medicines
• I took my prescription as I was supposed to.

6.9 98 per cent agreed or strongly agreed with the statement 'I knew enough about how and when to take my medicines' and 'I took my prescription as I was supposed to'.

6.10 The lowest result for these statements related to 'I knew enough about the possible side effects of my medicines' - only 83 per cent agreed or strongly agreed with this statement (Table 3).

Table 3: Summary results of questions about medicines

Notes:

1. Statements sorted by percentage of patients strongly agreeing or agreeing.

2. New statement for the 2011/12 survey.

3. Positive percentage results are based on agree and strongly agree answers.

4. All changes in this table are statistically significant

5. Totals may not add due to rounding