What have we found from our GP Enter and View visits?

After receiving feedback from the residents of Lancashire about their difficulties making appointments with GP surgeries, we set up a programme of Enter and View visits to further investigate the barriers that patients were encountering. We talked with members of staff and patients at surgeries to look at how the issues were affecting the surgery and what was being put in place to overcome the challenges. 

In total we spoke with 117 people during this project and received over 30 responses on the Healthwatch Lancashire Feedback Centre. This has all been compiled to explore the themes that we discovered in the visits.

We asked patients about their experiences of making an appointment and what they felt about the care that they received. Patients gave us a wide range of feedback about their experiences, including the issues they faced making an appointment, concerns they held regarding using digital methods to make appointments and some issues they had in being navigated to appropriate care.

“I can’t get in to see a doctor, I keep getting rescue packs of antibiotics from the pharmacy as I can’t see my doctor. I am unsure if I should even still be on the antibiotics.”

We also spoke with members of staff at each practice to gain their perspective on the situation and to identify how they were altering their working practices to improve the patient experience. Staff recognised the immediacy of the issues patients were facing and were putting processes in place to try and help make appointments more accessible.

Recommendations were formulated after consideration of the feedback collected.  We have heard that some of our recommendations have been actioned by the provider, which highlights the value of working in partnership with services in our local area.

We will be continuing to work with GP surgeries throughout the year with additional Enter and View visits.

Thank you to the GP surgeries we visited for their support and for welcoming us during the visit. 

You can read the full report here

Do you have feedback you would like to leave about your GP?

You can do this on our independent Feedback Centre