Survey on patient policy priorities and resources – results and next-steps

From 22 April – 12 May the National Association for Patient participation ran a nation-wide survey, asking both our members and the general public to share the concerns and issues they are facing within primary care.

Specifically, we asked respondents to rank the following issues in order of importance:

• Empowering patients to gain knowledge about primary care and confidence in participation (UK wide issue)
• Digital access to appointments in primary care (UK wide issue)
• Access and choice of appointments in primary care (UK wide issue)
• NHS reforms including the recent White Paper on Integration and Innovation (England only)

Almost half the respondents ranked issues around access and choice of appointments as their number one concern. In particular, there were worries around:

• Accessing the same GP for continuity of care.
• Accessing the right doctor depending on personal circumstances, including specialists for mental health support.
• Access to appointments for those who work full-time.
• Access to results for quicker diagnosis.
• The impact of Covid and how this will affect delivery of care, now and in the future.

To act on these concerns, we will continue to speak with our members to get a better understanding about their experience in accessing GP services; review the feedback from the recent GP Patient Survey to understand widespread patterns; and compile our findings into a paper to share with decision-makers including Sajid Javid, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and Nikki Kanani, Medical Director of Primary Care at NHS England.

We ask our members to continue to read our regular e-bulletin and engage with us on our online community platform, VeryConnect, where we will reach out to you for more input.