Londonwide LMCs' patient survey
On Tuesday 6 May 2008 Londonwide LMCs' survey of over 1500 London patients found that a staggering 9 out of 10 patients would prefer to keep seeing their NHS GP at their present surgery and see any additional NHS funding spent on developing the services it already provides, opposed to seeing their surgery moved to a large single-site clinic with a broader range of services. This suggests that the single-site polyclinic model will only meet the needs of the smallest minority of patients across the capital. The results also show that just 1 in 10 people are in favour of almost all GP practices in London becoming part of a polyclinic. And of these, 60% still want to keep their local surgery in favour of a single-site polyclinic that may be further away from their home.
Surprisingly 7 out of 10 patients have never heard of the £4 million consultation - ‘Healthcare for London: Consulting the Capital’ and 57% of people still don’t know what a polyclinic is.
Londonwide LMCs has always known that continuity of care is of the upmost importance to patients and this has confirmed by findings that suggest a massive 96% of patients are of the view that seeing a doctor/nurse who knows them and their medical history is important to them.
As well as the main report, we have broken down the figures and produced reports for the following 5 areas:
Dr Stewart M Drage, Joint Chief Executive of Londonwide LMCs, says: “We have had real concerns about how involved patients are in the consultation process and that is why we decided to ask them directly. These results show that a huge majority have no knowledge of the consultation or the polyclinic model. Can NHS London really be happy with such questionable results? I’m not sure I would be."
“You cannot ignore the views of over 1500 Londoner patients who are presently accessing NHS GP services. You don’t need to spend £4 million on a consultation to gain the opinions of those most affected by changes to primary care provision, i.e. patients. Especially if you have decided the outcome already, as NHS London seem to have done.”
Dr Tony Stanton, Joint Chief Executive, Londonwide LMCs, says: “The response to our patient survey has exceeded expectations and the results tell a very different story to those published by NHS London. We urge NHS London and Primary Care Trusts to listen to and act upon patient views.
“With a huge 93% of London patients choosing to keep their local surgery instead of a polyclinic, perhaps it is time NHS London listened to them and invested the polyclinic funding, that they assure us is available, in local surgeries. After such an expensive consultation process it is very disappointing to see there were only just over 4000 individual responses out of a population of 7 million across London and that major primary healthcare changes will be made on basis of this limited response.”
Dr Mitch Garsin, West London GP, says: “Our concern is primarily for our patients. How can the implementation of a polyclinic model be justified when only 1 in 10 of our patients are in favour of these changes. I believe the funding would be much better spent on developing existing surgeries, allowing them to expand their good range of current services and to network naturally, without coercion."
“My patients appreciate seeing familiar faces at the surgery and being able to walk here with limited fuss. This is especially important to our most frequent users, who are often less able, such as the elderly or those people with young children. The implementation of polyclinics or increased commercialisation will seriously impact on this, and it won’t be for the better.”
The full press release is available in from our press releases section.