Investigating people's experience of GP surgeries in Sutton

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on NHS services, including GP surgeries. Many surgeries introduced new ways of working in response to it, some of which have remained. Some patients have welcomed these changes, whilst others have found them difficult. As such, people’s experience of their GP surgery has become a frequent topic in both the national media and political debate. 

In this context, in 2023 Healthwatch Sutton decided to investigate people’s experience of their GP surgery in Sutton. It had already been receiving feedback from residents which suggested their experiences were mixed, so it decided to run a larger, more comprehensive survey to expand on this insight. It created a survey which asked people about three aspects of their GP surgery’s service in Sutton, based on NHS England’s Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care: 

• How they contacted their surgery 
• What outcome they received
• How their appointment went

4,285 people responded to the survey.

Key findings:

1 in 4 respondents found it hard to contact their surgery, of whom half weren’t able to contact at all. • One of the reasons for finding it hard to contact the surgery was childcare and work commitments, which made it difficult to be available at the right time of day

• The majority (69%) of respondents still used the telephone to contact their surgery, despite the ambition to shift to digital tools. 
• Of the surgeries which had piloted digital tools, three had significantly higher proportions of respondents using ‘Other apps’ to contact them (21%, 20% and 16%). 
• Most respondents (74%) still tried to contact their surgery in the morning, with half of these respondents contacting ‘first thing/ at 8am’. 
• 72% of respondents who were able to contact their surgery were satisfied with the outcome they received. 
• 86% of respondents who attended an appointment thought it went very well or quite well. 
• Many respondents gave highly positive individual feedback about their surgery. 
• Some respondents complained about only being able to book appointments on the day.

The survey also asked respondents for their own feedback about their surgery. Surgeries received more positive than negative feedback about the care they provided, and more negative than positive feedback about the processes for accessing that care, particularly appointment availability.

The report has seven recommendations.