Primary Care Survey Report, Rutland

Survey was a joint collaboration between Healthwatch Rutland and East Leicestershire and Rutland Clinical Commissioning Group (ELR CCG), in January 2017. Purpose to inform health commissioners and providers about the views of Rutland residents on the services available to them at present and in the future.

750 people responded to the survey which was available in Easy Read format, large print and braille to ensure accessibility. Largest group of respondents was aged 66-75, more women responded than men with under 10% of respondents describing themselves as disabled.

Overall Experience of General Practice:

• GP surgeries scored well on patients’ overall experience of their services and fairly well on patients’ satisfaction with appointment availability.

• Accessing appointments.

• Concern over capacity of GP services.

News ways of working in general practice:

• People are happy to see healthcare professionals other than GPs.

• Face to face communication preferred but telephone consultations acceptable.

• Acceptance of visit to another GP surgery or community hospital to see specialists or receive tests normally done in hospital and prepared to travel up to ten miles.

• Concerns about transport to GP services.

Urgent Care Services:

• Awareness of Urgent Care Services increased information available (opening hours, reduced waiting times, prescription and diagnostic facilities and how to access services).

• Positive experiences recorded.

Mental Health Services:

• Under half had experienced poor or very poor service

• Improvements made by increasing staff (particularly community based local staff), improving availability of services in Rutland, reducing waiting times for appointments and treatment.

• Communication and mental health training for GPs and other health professionals.

• Create a joined up working environment.

• More emphasis on prevention and early intervention for mental health issues.

Emergency Ambulances:

• Staff’s professionalism, care and compassion when dealing with the public.

• Call response times and long waits in Rutland remain a major concern.

Non-emergency Transport:

• Inconsistent experiences

• Improvements in information, communication and a reduction in waiting times.

Dentistry:

• Large proportion of people responding used private dental services.

• Access to NHS dental services in Rutland.

Community Pharmacy:

• Many positive experiences of community pharmacy services in Rutland.

• Improvements in better communication between GPs and pharmacies,

repeat prescription systems, reducing waiting times in pharmacies and

increasing opening times.

Health Information:

• Access to health information through a variety of ways including search engines, NHS website and an awareness of the 11 service.

Conclusion: Future Health Care in Rutland

The need for future health care services in Rutland to include: the continued use of Rutland Memorial Hospital, improvements to local GP services and additional local healthcare services to avoid the need to travel out of County.