Experiences of Primary Care

28th March 2013

Scotland's Chief Statistician today published a report exploring variations in the experiences of different people using primary care services. The report draws on the results of the 2011/12 Scottish patient experience survey of GP and local NHS services. The report explores whether factors influence people�s experiences such as patient characteristics - age, gender, ethnicity, deprivation, health status for example. It also looks at the influence of GP practices and regional level factors.

We found that the factors that had the strongest effects on people�s experiences were:

The GP practice that they were registered with � there was considerable variation between practices, especially when it came to accessing GP practice services. There was also considerable variation between practices in people�s experiences of doctors and nurses, and in the overall care provided. The size of their GP practice � people reported better experiences at smaller practices. The effect of practice size was greatest when it came to accessing services.

Age � we found that older patients reported better experiences. The effects of age were greatest for people�s experiences of doctors and nurses, and the overall care provided.
Health status � people with better health status reported better experience. Health status had a similar effect across all areas covered by the survey.
We also found some differences in people�s experiences due to gender, socio-economic status, ethnicity, whether in work or education, being a carer, having a disability. However these differences were less marked.

Related information:

The full statistical publication (Variations in the Experiences of Primary Care Patients)
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2013/03/2822