Patients said they felt staff treated them with “care and concern” and listened to their needs.
A recent NHS survey identified that 90% of patients have ‘confidence and trust’ in NHS staff such as practice nurses, GPs and pharmacists.
In addition, it also revealed that 70% of patients reported a positive experience with out of hours services.
Describing their experiences regarding services given by GP practices, the NHS GP Patient Survey 2019 gathered responses from almost 800,000 patients nationwide: including access to GPs.
The survey also reveals that over half of patients manage to get same day appointments and see their prefered GP or health practitioner.
Dr Becks Fisher, GP and Senior Policy Fellow at the Health Foundation, stated that these figures “show most people remain satisfied with general practice,” and that this is “a testament to the hard work of general practice teams.”
A pressing need for more staff.
However, Dr Fisher goes on to warn that a shortfall of healthcare professionals working in primary care is causing more people “waiting too long for appointments, or problems contacting their practice”.
Almost 1 in 4 patients found accessing information or services on their GP practice website difficult. Furthermore, 1 in 5 patients waited more than 15 minutes to be seen after their appointment time at their GP practice.
In February the NHS announced an ‘army of social prescribers’ would be implemented to reduce the demand on primary care providers.
While the intention is to relieve GP workloads to minimise the effect of their absence, Dr Fisher added; “there remains a pressing need for more GPs. The NHS can’t deliver a comprehensive workforce plan until the government decides how much funding to make available to recruit and train new staff.
“The current paralysis in Westminster is continuing to delay the long-awaited spendin
