Patients who see a GP face to face ‘more likely to be satisfied with their care’
Patients who see a GP face to face are more likely to be satisfied with their care, research suggests.
A study, published in the British Journal of General Practice, found patient satisfaction was lower at surgeries that relied more both on telephone appointments and consultations with staff who are not GPs.
These non-GP staff may include advanced nurse practitioners, physician associates (PAs), practice-based pharmacists and paramedics.
Furthermore, practices which offered more same-day appointments also had patients who were less satisfied than those in other surgeries.
For the work, University of Manchester researchers looked at 5,278 practices and their appointments using NHS data covering August 2022 to March 2023.
They also looked at the results of the NHS general practice patient survey.
The results showed a “higher volume of appointments, especially face to face with GPs, was significantly associated with increased patient satisfaction.”
The team concluded: “Patient satisfaction and ability to have health needs met is associated with face-to-face access to GPs as well as the total volume of appointments available.
“The results suggest that patients’ perceptions of access involve more than immediate availability of appointments or that patients may struggle to get appointments at practices offering more same-day appointments.
“Initiatives to improve access to and satisfaction with general practice should prioritise expanding face-to-face GP appointments.”
The researchers suggested patient satisfaction could increase by 1% when 10 additional face-to-face GP appointments per 1,000 patients per month were added across the NHS.
In their study, 69.5% of all appointments were face to face and 27.2% were on the phone.
Some 29.6% of appointments were face to face with a GP and 18.4% were GP telephone appointments.
The study detailed how those practices with a larger amount of telephone consultations had less satisfied patients than those who held more face to face.
This decreased only slightly when phone calls were carried out by GPs, rather than non-GP staff.
Dr Patrick Burch, academic clinical lecturer at the University of Manchester and a practising GP, said: “While telephone and IT-assisted appointments have an important role to play in general practice, we would cautiously welcome an overall increase in the proportion of face-to-face consultations.
“Until recently, simply employing more GPs was not seen as feasible. However, given six out of 10 job-seeking GPs have struggled to find a vacancy to apply for over the past year, this may now be a potential option.
“We would also welcome measures that free up GP time to enable more patient appointments.”
Dr Burch said non-GP roles in primary care since 2019 have increased by 21,600 full-time equivalent staff members.
He said cash was being used to pay less expensive clinicians rather than GPs, but said there is “undoubtedly an important role for non-GP clinicians in primary care.”
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, said: “GPs want the very best for all their patients, so it is very encouraging to hear of positive experiences and patient satisfaction rates rising.
“Most appointments in general practice – around 65% in January- are still carried out in person and we know that many patients prefer to see their GP face to face.
“We also know that many patients prefer the convenience that remote consultations offer; some find it a more comfortable way to access care or more convenient.
“How a patient accesses their care should be a shared decision and if a patient would prefer to see their GP in person, this should be a part of this conversation.
“This study shows that when patients have better access to their GPs, satisfaction with their care rises.
“But too many of our patients are still struggling to get appointments when they need them, despite GPs working harder than ever to ensure that they receive safe and timely care.”
She said: “This is as frustrating for GPs as it is for our patients, but while demand for our services continues to grow, both in complexity and volume, we simply don’t have enough GPs to keep up.
“General practice is the front door to the NHS, delivering the vast majority of patient contacts, but we are under incredible pressure.
“GPs and our teams are delivering over one million appointments per day, with fewer fully trained, full-time equivalent GPs than six years ago.”
She said the wider GP team, including practice nurses and physiotherapists, are highly valued and can “provide excellent care for patients when it isn’t necessary or appropriate to see a doctor”.
She added: “But these team members are not GPs and should not be used to plug gaps in the workforce that have been created by years of underinvestment and poor workforce planning by successive governments.
“We have been encouraged by commitments from this Government to redirect funding towards primary care and bring back the family doctor – but general practice has faced decades of neglect, and we need to see action to turn things around.”
The new study comes just over two weeks after an expert from the University of Oxford said allowing physician associates to take on the responsibilities of NHS doctors costs lives.
Professor Trisha Greenhalgh said not a single study has looked at whether PAs or anaesthetic associates (AAs) in the NHS are safe.
A review of the role of PAs and AAs is currently being led by Professor Gillian Leng, president of the Royal Society of Medicine.
An NHS spokesperson said: “While many patients choose remote appointments where it is clinically appropriate and more convenient for them, every GP practice must offer face-to-face appointments where patients want or need them, and if this isn’t possible, local commissioners should support practices to address this.”
Published: by Radio NewsHub