Primary Care: A review of local Healthwatch reports

Summary

We know from our conversations with the public that they are grateful to the many staff behind the services who work to ensure we all lead long and healthy lives.

Official figures show 85 per cent of people are satisfied with the services they receive. Yet, as our previous research has shown, satisfaction rates only tell part of the story.

To really understand people's experiences our network has spoken to more than 11,000 people and visited over 550 GP surgeries and other primary care premises such as pharmacies and opticians across the country.

Some of these problems are already well known, others continue to persist despite measures taken by policy makers and politicians, and a few are new issues.

We have compiled the findings into a single report which uses patients’ real life experiences to highlight areas where people want to see improvement.