Accessing care and your GP practice survey
Download (PDF 1.2 MB)Summary of report content
Healthwatch Bolton carried out research to find out the difficulties that patients were having when trying to access health care from their GP practice. They wanted to focus on patients who either did not have access to the internet or own a smartphone and were not technically savvy.
There were concerns over the changes post COVID-19 to the way surgeries operated. Summary of their findings includes:
- When contacting their GP, most people preferred to use the telephone, however, many people struggled to get through to their GP practice on the telephone.
- When using digital platforms, most people didn't find this very easy.
- When asked about quality of care, most people felt it had got worse since changes were made to accessing their GP.
- Most people are unhappy about the type of appointment they were offered.
- Most people self-cared if they were unable to get a GP appointment.
The report contains recommendations by Healthwatch about how to improve contacting and accessing GP practices, and about better information providing, particularly via pharmacies.