Patients have their say in annual Patient Survey
Friday, 12 July 2024
Patients across the country have shared their experience of GP practices, pharmacies and dental services.
The independent annual patient survey, run on behalf of NHS England, was published on Thursday 11 July.
The survey assesses people’s experience of healthcare services, including access, making appointments and the quality of care received from healthcare professionals.
Overall, Cheshire and Merseyside benchmarks slightly higher than the national average with 76% of patients reporting a good experience of GP practices compared to 74% nationally.
88% of patients in Cheshire and Merseyside said they had a good experience of pharmacy services compared to 87% nationally, while 70% had a positive dental experience compared to 69% across the rest of the country.
Insights from the survey will help the NHS to improve local health services for patients and their families.
Data is published at GP practice, Primary Care Network (PCN), Integrated Care System (ICS), and national level – in a variety of formats – including a national report, national results and trends and organisation-level reports.
See the full results and find out more about the survey here.
Cheshire GP Dr Jonathan Griffiths, NHS Cheshire and Merseyside’s Associate Medical Director for Primary Care, said:
“These annual patient survey results show that more Cheshire and Merseyside residents are getting the care they need, when they need it, thanks to the commitment of our teams delivering Primary Care services.
“Our GPs, Dentists, Pharmacists and Optometrists are all working incredibly hard to deliver on a number of pledges made in the publication of the Primary Care Access Recovery Plan and our Dental Recovery Plan, and more recently, the introduction of Pharmacy First is helping to free up more capacity in the system than ever before.
“While these are all significant steps forward, we know there is more to do. The survey shows that people's experiences vary, which is why we’re committed to continuing to work with primary care to modernise and improve services across Cheshire and Merseyside."
GP practices in Cheshire and Merseyside are now delivering quarter of a million more monthly appointments than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic.
During March 2024, for example, practices delivered more than 1.2m patient appointments – which is nearly 250,000 more than in the same period pre-pandemic.
Nearly 830,000 of these appointments were face-to-face, with a further 400,000 consultations delivered remotely by telephone, online or video - with many patients now choosing this option where clinically appropriate and more convenient for them do so.