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GP practice survey

  • Author:
    Department of Health
  • Published date:
    11 April 2008
  • Primary audience:
    Health and social care professionals
  • Gateway reference:
    Not required
  • Copyright holder:
    Crown

This is the third quarterly practice survey, covering a sample of practices from each primary care trust (PCT). The aims of the survey are to get feedback from practices on their perception of the support offered by their PCT and on the clinical and financial engagement of practices with PBC.  The survey is part of a group of indicators that will be assessed together to give a picture of PBC implementation.

Key findings:

  • There has been a rise in the number of practices commissioning new services through PBC (+8 percentage points since Wave 1 and +5 percentage points since Wave 2). 41 percent have commissioned new services through PBC.
  • The percentage of practices who have agreed a commissioning plan with their PCT has continued to increase (+11 points since Wave 1 and +3 points since Wave 2). 57 per cent of practices have now agreed a commissioning plan.
  • 62 percent of practices support the policy of PBC (a rise of 5 percentage points since Wave 1, and 3 percentage points since Wave 2).
  • The percentage of practices agreeing that PBC has improved patient care has marginally increased from 12 percent in Wave 2 to 16 percent in Wave 3. The proportion who disagree that PBC has improved patient care is in line with that of the previous two waves (31% in Wave 3, 30% in Wave 2, and 31% in Wave 1).
  • 71 percent of practices claim to have a good relationship with their PCT, a decline of 3 percentage points on Wave 2.
  • The proportion of practices who have received a financial incentive scheme has marginally declined since Wave 2 to the levels recorded in Wave 1 (down 4 percentage points since Wave 2 - now 62 percent).
  • There has been a rise in the proportion of practices who engage with their local population from 61 per cent in wave 2 to 70 per cent in Wave 3 (an increase of nine percentage points).
  • Around 4 in ten practices continue to rate their PCT’s managerial support for PBC as good (40 per cent in Wave 3, 42 per cent in Wave 2 and 37 per cent in Wave 1), however, half continue to rate managerial support for PBC as poor (49 per cent in Wave 3).
  • As in previous waves, around a third of practices continue to rate the quality, format and frequency of information provided by their PCT as being good.

Responses from Strategic Health Authorities to the survey findings:

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