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

7 GP Practices - Overall Results

Summary

7.1 Most patients agreed or strongly agreed that they had been treated with dignity and respect, and with kindness and understanding by the staff at their GP surgery. Overall 89 per cent of patients felt that the care provided by the GP surgery was excellent or good.

7.2 The areas that patients were most likely to answer negatively about were accessing GP services and referral to another NHS health professional.

GP referral to another NHS health professional

7.3 The 2011/12 survey included a new question on referrals: 'Thinking of the last time your GP referred you, how would you rate the arrangements for getting to see another NHS health professional?'

• 76 per cent of patients who were referred by their GP in the last twelve months to see another NHS professional rated the referral arrangements as excellent or good;
• 8 per cent rated the arrangements as poor or very poor (Chart 7).

Chart 7: Referral arrangements to another NHS health professional

How patients were treated by the staff at their GP surgery

7.4 Patients were asked about how much they agreed or disagreed with the following statements in relation to the way they had been treated by the staff at their GP surgery

• I am treated with dignity and respect;
• I am treated with kindness and understanding.

7.5 The statement on kindness and understanding replaced the statement on personal values and beliefs used in the 2009/10 survey.

7.6 91 per cent of patients agreed or strongly agreed that they were treated with dignity and respect, while 7 per cent neither agreed nor disagreed and 2 per cent disagreed or strongly disagreed with that statement. There is a reduction of 3 percentage points in the proportion of patients who agreed or strongly agreed to this statement compared to the 2009/10 survey (Table 4).

7.7 88 per cent of patients agreed or strongly agreed that they were treated with kindness and understanding, while 10 per cent neither agreed nor disagreed and 3 per cent disagreed or strongly disagreed (Table 4).

Table 4: Summary results of statements about dignity, respect, kindness and understanding

Statement	Disagree or strongly disagree (%)	Neither agree nor disagree (%)	Agree or strongly agree (%)
I am treated with dignity and respect	2	7	91
I am treated with kindness and understanding	3	10	88

Note:

Totals may not add due to rounding

Overall experience

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

• 89 per cent of patients rated their overall experience of care by the GP surgery as excellent or good, a reduction of 1 percentage point from the 2009/10 results (Table 5).

• 9 per cent of patients rated their overall experience as fair and 2 per cent as poor or very poor (Table 5).

Table 5: Summary results of question on overall experience of care provided by the GP surgery

Question	2011/12			Change from 2009/10 in positive %1
	Poor or very poor (%)	Fair (%)	Excellent or good (%)
Overall, how would you rate the care provided by your GP surgery?	2	9	89	-1

¹ This change is statistically significant

Top five and bottom five results

7.9 The question that most patients answered positively was about how clean their GP surgery or health centre was with 76 per cent answering that it was very clean and 23 per cent that it was fairly clean (Table 6). Three of the questions that patients answered most positively were about medicines.

Table 6: Top five results

Question	Percentage of patients answering positively
	Strongly agree	Agree	Total
The GP surgery is clean	76 (very clean)	23 (fairly clean)	99
Patients took their prescription as they were supposed to	60	38	98
Patients know enough about how and when to take their medicines	59	39	98
Patients know enough about what their medicines are for	56	40	96
Patients have enough time with the nurse	56	40	96

7.10 The question that most patients answered negatively was about trying to make an appointment with a doctor 3 or more working days in advance with 20 per cent saying that they were unable to (Table 7). All of the bottom five results are related to accessing GP services.

Table 7: Bottom five results

Question	Percentage of patients answering negatively
Able to book a doctors appointment 3 or more working days in advance	20
Can usually see preferred doctor	16
It was easy to get through on the phone	15
Could see or speak to a doctor or nurse within 2 working days	15
Time waiting to be seen at GP surgery	13

Changes since the 2009/10 survey

7.11 The biggest improvements compared to the 2009/10 survey were in the percentage of patients who felt that they had enough time with the doctor (+3 percentage points) and the percentage who felt that the nurse had all the information needed to treat them (+3 percentage points).

7.12 The biggest decreases in the results compared to 2009/10 were in the percentage of patients who rated the overall access arrangements as good or excellent (-6 percentage points) and the percentage of patients who were able to see or speak to a doctor or nurse within two working days (-5 percentage points).