As the NHS treats more patients than ever before, a new nationwide survey shows the vast majority of people in Barnsley are positive about their GP care – with eight out of ten patients rating their overall experience of their GP surgery as good.

The survey also found that confidence and trust in GPs and healthcare professionals remains extremely high at 94%, and 91% of patients felt involved in decisions about their care and treatment, while 94% felt the healthcare professional met their needs.

The GP Patient Survey 2018 compiled responses from almost 3,565 people across the borough on their experience of healthcare services provided by GP surgeries, including access to GPs, making appointments, the quality of care received from GPs and other health professionals, waiting  times, and satisfaction with opening hours and out-of-hours NHS services.

Further findings include that eight out of ten people described their overall experience of their GP practice as very or fairly good. The majority of patients (62%) rated their overall experience of making an appointment as good. Overall 62% of patients got an appointment at a time they wanted or sooner.

More than 78% of patients who have used their GP practice website said they found it easy to access information or services.

38% of patients are making the most of online services by booking their appointments online and three out of ten people use the online service to order their repeat prescriptions. Both of these can be done 24 hrs a day and day of the week.

When asked about their last appointment, 87.0% of patients said the healthcare professional was good at listening to them, 85% felt they were good at treating them and 85% of patients said they had been given enough time.

Dr Nick Balac, chair for Barnsley Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “General practice is the foundation of the NHS. This survey shows patients appreciate the fantastic job GPs and the wider practice teams are doing in times of real pressure, helping more people to live longer with increasingly complex conditions as well as managing daily demand for appointments.”

“There’s still room for improvement but we are putting significant resource and innovation into GP services to help drive improvements in care and I’m really pleased to see that patients are starting to feel the benefit of that. It’s also really great advert for anyone thinking of coming to work in Barnsley general practice.”

Background info:

• NHS Barnsley CCG commissions health services, including general GP services, across Barnsley.
• There are 33 GP practices across Barnsley borough.
• This year’s survey has been extensively redesigned following engagement with over 200 stakeholders including patients, the British Medical Association (BMA) and Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), and clinical and policy specialists from across the NHS, academia, the voluntary and community sector and think tanks – the aim is to help better understand and shape areas for improvement in people’s experiences of general practice and evolving approaches to delivering GP services. This means the majority of questions are not comparable with previous years, and that no comparable data will be published by NHS England.
• In NHS BARNSLEY CCG, 10,219 questionnaires were sent out, and 3,565 were returned completed. This represents a response rate of 35%. This is line with the national average response rate.