Modern General Practice: Mystery Shop

Healthwatch East Sussex decided to mystery shop access to GP services after hearing about people struggling to access them and that services were implementing change that would improve people's experience.  They looked at:

• The clarity and accessibility of practice phone messages
• The design of and information on practice websites
• Whether it was clear from the website and phone messaging what was available face to face.

Key findings

• Over three in five GP practice phone messages reviewed made it clear what access channels are available
• A good practice website doesn't automatically mean a good phone system or message
• Only 13% of phone messages reviewed mentioned walk in access at GP surgeries and less than a third had information on this topic on their website
• For most practices finding the correct website and phone number online was easy or very easy
• Over two in five phone messages provided information on what to do in an emergency
• The ring back option was only observed on phone systems at just over a third of practices.