West Oxfordshire: Patient Survey highlights reduced access to GPs

The independent survey run by Ipsos MORI on behalf of NHS England is sent out to more than two million people, randomly selected, from across England.

It gives patients the opportunity to feed back about their experiences to help the NHS to improve GP practices and other local NHS services so they better meet patients' needs.

There are eight GP practices plus Chipping Norton Health Centre serving 105,770 patients in West Oxfordshire.

In general, people’s satisfaction with the level of care provided was very high but people expressed frustration over the time it took to book appointments and how often they could speak to their preferred GP.

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Burford Surgery scored highly on all indicators and came 10th across the whole of Oxfordshire with a 92.11 per cent overall satisfaction rate.

Wychwood Surgery, Shipton-under-Wychwood, came seventh in Oxfordshire with overall satisfaction at 93.65 per cent.

The Nuffield Health Centre in Witney was among the 10 GP practices in Oxfordshire that scored worst on the overall satisfaction scale with 70.03 per cent.

Just 42 per cent of patients find it easy to get through by phone, 43 per cent are satisfied with the appointment times available and 30 per cent usually get to see or speak to their preferred GP.

However, 91 per cent say the healthcare professional they saw or spoke to was good at giving them enough time during their last appointment, 90 per cent say they were good at listening to them and 91 per cent say they were good at treating them with care and concern.

Also among the 10 lowest scoring GP practices in Oxfordshire was the Charlbury Medical Centre with just 33 per cent satisfied with the appointment times available.

But 89 per cent rated highly the healthcare professional they saw or spoke to.

It was the same story at Chipping Norton Health Centre, which was among the 10 worst performers at 66.04 per cent, but once they got an appointment patients were happy with the care provided.

Broadshires Health Centre, Carterton, scored 65.47 per cent for overall patient satisfaction with more frustration over access.

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Just 30 per cent find it easy to get through by phone but 92 per cent say the healthcare professional they last saw or spoke to was good at listening to them and 91 per cent say they were good at treating them with care and concern.

Woodstock Surgery was not among the top 10 best or worst practices in Oxfordshire.

Here 74 per cent describe their overall experience as good. Only half of patients found it easy to get through on the phone but roughly 90 per cent were happy with the level of care.

A spokesperson for NHS Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board said: "Practices across the BOB ICB area are normally slightly better or similar to the national average on all indicators."

They added that the main factor hindering access to GPs was that the GP workforce was not able to deal with the demand for GP appointments.

All Patient Participation Groups were contacted.