Review of GP practice website information - how COVID-19 and service changes are reflected

Healthwatch Coventry undertook research into the information on GP practice websites about service changes during the Covid-19 pandemic, as it was a priority for them to ensure that local people have accessible information to support them to use NHS and care services in the light of service changes resulting from the pandemic. They searched for and where possible visited the websites of the 54 GP practices in Coventry, using a variety of different digital devices

Nearly nine in ten GP practices had functioning dedicated websites.  Over half provided updated website information about how Covid-19 has impacted on accessing GP appointments. The ease of navigation to information about how to make an appointment varied greatly between websites. Some websites had information on the home page about how to make an appointment and for the majority this information was on another page.

Nearly four in five websites had information about Covid-19 such as symptoms and what to do if you had symptoms and /or information about testing. Half provided an email contact route and nearly three in five provided a web form for users to contact the surgery. Just 2 of the 32 practices providing a web form gave an indication of the response time people could expect if they used it to contact the practice.

Over four in five websites were clear about practice opening hours and over three in five had clear information about how to contact health services out of GP practice hours.  Nearly two in five had specific information about how to get test results. Nearly three in five had information about immunisation services.

There were ten recommendations about making GP websites easier to use, access information about Covid-19 and access to GP services and using reassuring patient focussed information.