Patient views about Woodingdean Medical Practice

As a result of patients raising concerns over making GP appointments at Woodingdean Medical Centre (WMC), Healthwatch Brighton and Hove undertook a survey with assistance from the practice. In context, compared to 6 months ago, 41.4% found it a ‘little more difficult’ or ‘much more difficult’ to make an appointment. A total of 26.5% found this ‘much easier’ or a ‘little easier’. The difficulties were most apparent among people with disabilities, younger people and those from a White-British background compared to ethnically minoritised people . A total of 1,129 people completed the survey – mostly online although paper copies were also available.

The practice had recently made some changes, such as adding content to their website informing people of the services available. Less than one half of patients were aware of the majority of changes. Awareness of these changes were low for booking appointments with a Social Prescriber First Contact Practitioner, or Clinical Pharmacist (15.6% aware), and also Enhanced Access appointments (14.2% aware). The exceptions were awareness about seeking help from other NHS services (60.5% were aware) and that it is possible to book an appointment with a different health professional depending on the issue (73.8% were aware). 

The survey asked about people’s perceived ability to manage their health and care needs. There was high knowledge for how to use the NHS App - 73.6%. However, fewer people knew: 

• where to find the tips ‘to make the most of your appointment’ published on the WMC website (9.4% knew), 
• how to use the e-Consult function on the website (14.6% knew), 
• how to subscribe to ‘Practice news’ via email (15.6% knew)and how to raise a comment about WMC (16.5% knew). 

There was a generally low level of awareness about the Patient Participation Group (PPG) at Woodingdean Medical Centre. Since 2015, the NHS requires each GP practice to have a PPG. A PPG is a group that consists of patients, carers and GP practice staff which meet regularly to discuss practice issues and patient experience with the aim of improving the service. Only 27.7% of respondents had heard of the PPG and only 13.5% knew about its role. However, 42.1% would like to know more, and 16.9% were interested in joining the PPG.   People from ethnic minorities and people with disabilities showed most interest in joining the PPG. 

The composition of the PPG was mostly women (61.9%) and White-British (90.0%), with an average age of 60.48 years.  Raising the PPG’s awareness of the changes in the practice would be valuable in certain areas, especially the availability of Enhanced Access (22.7% aware) and the out of hours phone number (27.3%). Members of the PPG also need to be more able to subscribe to the ‘practice news’ (22.7% knew), where to find the ‘tips to make the most of your appointment’ published on the website (22.7%) and use e-Consult (27.3%). 

There was only a 10-percentage point difference between whether people favoured more advance appointments or more on the same day. People from ethnic minorities were more likely to prefer available on the day appointments (51.7%) compared to 42.6% of White-British people. People showed preference for phone appointments (63.5%) and to extend the period of appointments bookable in advance from 2 to 4 weeks (59.8%). 45.6% wanted more service updates from the Practice keeping them informed about the changes that may help them access care more easily and 38.4% were interested in video appointments. Men, ethnic minorities, LGBT and younger people were particularly interested in phone appointments. People who were LGBT showed the strongest preference, independent on the other factors such as gender and ethnicity.

E-Consult is rarely used (70.7% had never used it). Older people were least likely to have used it (47.9% of 45-64 year olds had never used e-Consult, compared to 15.7% of 25- 44 years olds).  People with disabilities found e-Consult more difficult to use - 39.6% of those with disabilities found it ‘difficult’ or ‘very difficult’ to use compared to 26.6% of those without a disability. 4 However, of those who have used e-Consult, a greater proportion found it easy to use (44.6%) compared to those reporting difficulties (31.7%). 

Once people are able to make an appointment at WMC, people showed that the quality of care is generally excellent.  Between 72.5% and 82.2% rated the care as ‘Good’ or ‘Very good’ in terms of Listening to you (82.2% ‘Good’ or ‘Very good’), Treating you with care and concern (81.3%), Giving you enough time (78.8%), Explaining tests and treatments (76.2%), Involving you in decisions about your care (73.3%), Having access to relevant medical information about you (72.9%) and Addressing your needs or making plans to do so (72.5%). Only between 6% and 8% noted any aspects of the care as ‘Very poor’ or ‘Poor’.

The report has eight recommendations and a response from the provider.