Agenda item - GP Services in Brighton & Hove: Healthwatch Perspective

Healthwatch to present its research on local GP services (copy attached)

18.1    Roland Marsden introduced the report, telling members that a large scale survey had been undertaken across the city and around 500 responses had been received. Approximately 80% of respondents thought the quality of care by GPs and practice staff was good.

18.2    A number of concerns were raised by respondents. These included: accessibility; booking appointments (including waiting times); and waiting times for referrals (which approximately 50% of patients raised as a concern). Other findings were that there is a low awareness of preventative services; and sometimes poor communication from surgeries to their patients regarding available services.

18.3    In response to Councillor Deane it was explained that the expectation would be that if more residents had their full health checks, this would reduce demand on services in the long term. However, there was an additional resource requirement in the short term. Mr Marsden agreed that providing more options for booking and cancelling appointments would be positive for patients and would potentially reduce the pressure on GP phone lines.

18.4    Mr Marsden agreed to include information on where referrals were being delayed in a subsequent Healthwatch report. He added that patients felt that there was particularly poor communication regarding referrals. This is acknowledged by services and there are plans to address this problem.

18.5    In response to a question from Councillor Marsh on how the GP practices are inspected, it was explained that Healthwatch had worked closely with the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to identify which GP practices should be prioritised by the CQC.

18.6    In response to a question from Councillor Allen on continuity of care in primary care, it was explained that the majority of patients are happy to see any GP when they need to see a doctor. However, some respondents very much want to be able to see their own GP.

18.8    In response to Councillor Moonan on Patient Participation Groups (PPG), it was explained that GP practices have an obligation to attempt to establish PPGs.

18.9    Councillor Cattell noted that she was shocked with the low figures of preventative care in the city, and suggested that letters should be sent to residents with booked appointments that could be cancelled, similar to women’s breast cancer screening. NHS representatives acknowledged that adopting an “opt out” approach could be positive and would feed this back. Councillor Allen added that it was likely that the figures for preventative care would be even lower if the survey had been taken by all residents of Brighton and Hove.

18.10  It was agreed that a copy of the survey would be circulated to Committee Members.

18.11  The Committee agreed that a further report should be presented at a future Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee.

18.12  RESOLVED – That the Committee agreed to note the report.