Survey shows people on Fylde Coast have ‘good’ experience of GP practice

People living on the Fylde Coast have reported a ‘good’ experience of their GP surgery in an annual survey.

Of the 4,036 people who responded to the annual GP Patient Survey, more than 85 per cent said they were happy with their practice, placing the area above the national average.

More than nine in 10 said they found the receptionist at their practice helpful, 83 per cent found their practice’s website easy to use and almost 90 per cent said healthcare professionals understood mental health needs where they existed.

The awareness of the availability of online services has also increased, more people have booked appointments, ordered repeat prescriptions and viewed their medical records via the internet.

However, 76 per cent of people said they hadn’t used any online services in the past 12 months, although this was an improvement on last year.

Speaking on behalf of the Fylde Coast NHS, Peter Tinson, chief operating officer at NHS Fylde and Wyre Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “We are delighted that once again patients on the Fylde Coast are telling us they are happy with the service they receive from their local GP practice and that we are again above the national average.

“This is testament to the hard work that goes on in surgeries all over the Fylde Coast, from all the practice teams.

“It is also great to see that more people are using online services, but there are still 76% of people telling us they haven’t used these services at all. We will continue to work hard to increase the awareness and usage of online services.

The GP Patient Survey reflects on people’s experience of healthcare services provided by GP surgeries, including access to GPs, making appointments, the quality of care received from GPs and practice nurses, ease of use of online services and satisfaction of out-of-hours NHS services.

The survey is run independently by Ipsos Mori and sent to more than a million people at random across the UK. On the Fylde Coast, 38 per cent of the 10,763 surveys sent out were returned.

Other key findings of the survey included more than nine in 10 respondents found the receptionist at their GP practice helpful, seven in 10 said it was very or fairly easy to get through to someone at their GP surgery on the phone and 83 per cent said their GP practice website was easy to use to look for information and access services.