Over 90 percent of patients recall choice discussions

More than 90% of patients who were referred to hospital in the first three months of this year discussed choice of hospital with their GP, according to the results of a Department of Health survey of almost 270,000 patients.

The results of the National GP Patient Surveys on Access and Choice for 2006/7, published today  show that 94% of patients referred by their GP discussed choice of hospital.

The DH said 95% of practices had more than 60% of referred patients reporting they discussed choice and only 3% of practices had less than 50% of patients reporting that they discussed choice at referral. Practices by practice results for both surveys are available on the DH website.

A report by Ipsos MORI, which administered the surveys for the DH, says that patients registered with large practices were more likely to say their GP talked with them about choice, whereas patients in small practices were least likely to say the same.

Patients living in the country’s least deprived areas were more likely to say they discussed choice of hospital with their GP, compared with those in more deprived areas. There was little variation in whether choice was talked about in relation to factors such as patients’ age, gender, or whether they live in urban or rural areas.

The choice survey was conducted between January and March this year when adult patients who were referred to see a specialist were handed a questionnaire at the time of referral. A total of 269,301 completed questionnaires were returned.

A directed enhanced service (DES) for choice and booking offered GPs a total of 48p per patient last year on a sliding scale according to what percentage of patients recalled being offered choice at referral. The DES has been rolled over for this year.

The results of the survey of more than two million patients on access to GP services, also published today, show that 86% of patients reported being satisfied with their ability to getting through to their surgery on the telephone and 84% were satisfied with the current opening hours in their practice.

Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the British Medical Association’s General Practitioner Committee, said : “These findings, that 84 in every 100 patients are satisfied with the current opening hours in their practice and 86 in every 100 patients could get a quick appointment with their GP, may be news to politicians but echo all the existing up-to-date research already done with patients. You have to ask: was it really a good use of scarce NHS money to spend upwards of £11m to prove it yet again?”