« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
Introduction
This report contains the detailed findings from the Scottish GP Access Survey, including analysis of results and response rates by GP practice and patient characteristics (part 1), and information about the survey methodology (part 2). Initial results were published on the Scottish Government website on 19 th May 2009.
The GP Access Survey asked patients about their experiences of arranging to see or speak to their GP or other health professional at their practice. There were questions about being able to access the services fairly quickly (within 2 working days), as well as being able to book further ahead.
The results from the survey will be used to calculate payments for GP practices as part of the General Practice quality incentive scheme, the Quality and Outcomes Framework ( QOF). Full information on this is published by NHS Information and Statistics Division ( ISD) and can be found on the internet at www.isdscotland.org/qof. Full 2009/09 QOF results will be published on the 29 th September 2009.
The questionnaire for the survey was developed and tested by Ipsos MORI, in consultation with the Scottish General Practitioners Committee ( SGPC), NHS Scotland and the Scottish Government. A copy of the questionnaire is included in Annex A.
Patients who were sent the survey were randomly sampled from the lists of patients registered with each GP practice in Scotland. This was done confidentially, and no information is kept on who has been sent or completed the survey. Between October 2008 and January 2009, questionnaires were mailed to the homes of 543,246 patients registered with a GP practice across Scotland. Of these patients, 269,186 (50%) returned the form.
Not all of the forms that were returned could be included in the calculation of results for the two types of access. Answers have been coded using an agreed coding scheme ( Annex B) which determines for each of the two types of access (a) whether the response is included in the analysis (valid responses), and (b) whether or not the access was obtained. Further information on response rate and valid response rate is contained in Chapter 3.
It should be kept in mind that because they are based on a survey, the results are subject to sampling variability. More information on sampling can be found in the methodology section.
Further data tables can be downloaded from the Scottish Government website, including figures for each GP practice in Scotland at the following web site: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/GPAccessSurveyResults
« Previous | Contents | Next »