Drive to 'level up' Hartlepool GP practices after latest round of scores

Bosses at NHS Tees Valley Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) noted how they want to work together with partners to ensure GP practices give patients the best experience possible.

It comes after the Primary Care Commissioning Committee reviewed results of the GP patient survey, showing how satisfied users were with their GP practice.

Across the CCG 82% reported a positive experience with their practice, the same rate as the national average, however GP practices reported results ranging from 55% to 100% satisfaction

Similarly 61% of people responded positively to how easy it was to access the GP practice via phone, with the national average 65%, but results ranged from 22% to 100% within practices across the Tees Valley.

Although officers warned the survey, which ran from January to March, only covers a small section of the population, calls were made for practices to share success stories to help others improve.

Caroline Gitsham, lay member who chaired the meeting, said: “There is quite a significant variation in the practice range.

“I thought the opportunity for practices to share good practice in terms of what they’re doing that enables people to get through quickly, and make sure patients feel supported, and maybe sharing some of that learning across the practices might be helpful.”

David Gallagher, accountable officer at the CCG, noted the results show just one part of the picture, and are similar to national averages, but they need to work together to put together a fuller view.

He said: “The combined approach from a range of partners would be really helpful from that point of view, so we understand what’s out there, and then can use it to level up the practices, so we’ve got really good performing ones, we can bring those up to that level.

“A really good start this but much more work to be done with it.”

Lisa Bosomworth, from South Tees Healthwatch, highlighted virtual services as one area she would like to see more on following the impact of Covid-19.

She said: “I think that we would quite like to locally do a bit more of a deep dive into the virtual appointment experience.

“One thing that I think will be taken forward from a lot of services is to continue with virtual support and I just think that it would be really handy to look at lessons learnt, things that worked well, things that didn’t.”

The survey was sent out to 4% of the population, with around a third returning it fully completed.

Karen Hawkins, director of commissioning, strategy and delivery, said further work is being undertaken to better understand concerns raised, while the CCG is also working with the five Healthwatch groups in the region to analyse patient satisfaction since the Covid-19 outbreak.

Of the 18 GP practices in and around Hartlepool the lowest scoring practice saw 56% of its patients, who completed the survey, rate it as good or very good.

The highest was Wingate Medical Centre, which received 94%, followed by Blackhall and Peterlee Practice, The Patel Practice and West View Millennium Surgery, which all received a score of 92%.

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