GP Access and Out of Hours Provision
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Healthwatch Halton undertook a survey about GPs. 491 people responded.
Results show that for certain areas there is a lack of knowledge about the services provided and how they are delivered at the GP Practices.
The reasons why practices use triage systems seems not to be widely understood by all patients. Just over half of respondents did not know if their practice used a nurse to triage “Book on the day” appointments.
From the responses received it seems that options for a single call centre in Halton for access to GP services is not a popular one. Overall 62% of respondents didn’t like the idea of a single call centre. Breaking down the response by age group it failed to show majority support for the idea in all but one age group, with the 18-24 age group having a majority in favour (45% Yes to 30% No) of the idea.
62% of Halton patients thought GP practices should be open for longer hours. Of the 62% who chose longer hours, weekend and evening opening were the most popular option. To a lesser degree early mornings and lunch times were preferred.
Patients can be treated outside the boundary of their GP practice, by Out of Hours GP services, and Urgent Care Centres, with the possibility of other GP practices as an option in the review of GP Services. Our survey results show that a large majority, 73% of patients, would like their medical records available anywhere they will be treated in Halton.
The success of the new Urgent Care Centres in both Widnes and Runcorn can be seen as crucial to providing valuable relief to the A&E departments of local hospitals. The survey revealed that 61% of participants were not aware of the plans for the new Urgent Care Centres in Halton.
While the figures show that 66% of people were comfortable in making a complaint if needed that still left 34% who weren’t.