Primary Care Access Survey Detailed Analysis

This patient survey was commissioned by the Clinical Commissioning Group in Ealing and had multiple aims;

• To ascertain the relative ease in booking routine and urgent appointments during GP core opening hours (08:00 – 6:30 pm Monday to Friday)
• To understand the ability of patients to get through to the practice on the phone, and the ability to speak to the doctor on the phone, if necessary
• To identify the prevalence of online services, and whether patients would use these services if they are in place
• To identify patients’ preferences for extended opening hours of GP practices
• To identify other means of healthcare support and advice patients are aware of
• To evaluate the use of Urgent Care Centres, instead of GP practices, for urgent appointments
• To investigate patient awareness levels of the new GP access centres

Over the course of three and a half weeks, HWE staff and volunteers visited a variety of locations. These included waiting rooms of GP surgeries, outside of primary schools, local buses, tube stations, Ealing hospital, high streets and shopping centres, and stalls at events such as the AGE UK ‘Get Together’ and Carers Trust Thames Open Day.

A sample of 2,000 local patients were surveyed about primary care GP access across Ealing’s seven Health Network Groups. Surveys were carried out by HWE staff and volunteers and an average of 280 patients were reached in each network.

The report, which you can download below, is comprised of the findings of the surveys;

Location and survey sample information are presented first (section 3.1-3.2), followed by the overall findings from each survey question (section 3.3). Section 4 highlights findings by GP network. Where analysis has identified notable trends and themes, such as distinctive findings across different age groups, these are presented within the appropriate section in the main body of the report. Recommendations based on the findings are given at the end of the report (section 5).