Worrying figures show the new government must start with general practice – Nuffield Trust response to GP patient survey

Responding to the GP patient survey, Nuffield Trust Director of Research and Policy Dr Becks Fisher said:

“Today’s results show that if the new government is truly aiming to fix a broken NHS, it must prioritise fixing general practice. This requires increasing the proportion of NHS funding to primary care, addressing GP recruitment and retention, and fixing longstanding inequalities in the provision of GP services.

“Patients still feel cared for when they get through the door: their trust and confidence in the professionals they see in general practice remains high at 92.3%. But nearly a fifth (19%) had a bad experience contacting their practice. The way the survey is done makes comparison with previous years hard, but after years of worsening scores, there is no clear sign of recovery.

"Particularly worrying is that despite clear evidence that seeing the same health professional over time improves patient outcomes, the proportion of people who have a preferred clinician is falling, and the proportion who actually get to see that clinician is now well below half (40%)

“Having promised to “bring back the family doctor”, the new government must use guidance and incentives to make this happen for more people, even if it means not demanding as many other things from GPs.

“The results on dentistry are deeply troubling. Only about half of people (52%) have even tried to get an NHS appointment in the last two years. Of those who didn’t try, for over 60% this was because of price, waits, private alternatives or the simple unavailability of NHS care. Labour's pot of money for urgent and emergency appointments will help patients, but it just isn’t going to turn around a situation where half of adults aren’t getting the care they should on the NHS. The new government need to build on the promising talks with dentists this week to deliver the reform of the contract they have promised – a contract which has failed dentists and patients for nearly twenty years.”