Doctors reject patients' survey
GPs claim they already take patients' views into account
Also In The News
|
Hopes of achieving peace in the Middle East strengthened today after a new ceasefire agreement appeared to hold between the Israelis and the Palestinians. |  |
Monday, 27, Nov 2006 10:02
Doctors have criticised the government's latest patients' survey for being "biased" and "putting words in patients' mouths".
The Department of Health (DoH) announced today that patients will be questioned on whether they are satisfied with access to GPs' services.
Surgeries which are responsive to patients' views on access can earn additional funding of £8,000.
Announcing the survey, health secretary Patricia Hewitt said: "[It] will provide us with a patient's-eye-view of how well GP surgeries measure-up on flexible booking and telephone access. Patients will also tell us whether they are satisfied with GP practice opening hours.
"We have invested generously in the new contract for GPs. We need now to make sure practices are responding to patient views on access."
But the British Medical Association's (BMA) general practitioners' committee (GPC), which was involved with the 'yes/no' questions of the survey, has argued that GPs already regularly consult their patients about services and the survey has been discredited because of the "biased" questions the DoH added into it.
Questions in dispute relate to how satisfied patients are with appointment times and with the hours surgeries are open, both of which provide a range of answers from 'very satisfied' to 'very dissatisfied'.
Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the GPC said that the survey is "totally discredited" by the addition of these questions.
He said: "We reluctantly consented to having some part of practice income dependent on a patient questionnaire about access provided it was based on fair, unbiased questions which we agreed. Progress towards such an agreement was made until the government imposed additional questions in the survey which were not agreed.
"The GPC believes the imposition of these questions will raise patient expectations unfairly. The questions ask patients if they are satisfied with arrangements for early morning, evening and weekend surgeries at a time when the government is not prepared to provide GP practices with the resources to open at these times, all of which are outside GPs' agreed contractual hours. Although the imposed questions will not directly affect practice income, we feel they have the potential to bias responses to all the other questions which will."
Dr Meldrum added: "GPs will continue to consult their patients about their views on the services they provide because we value their opinions and want to try to arrange our surgeries to meet their needs. But using a survey containing leading questions, putting words in patients' mouths, and falsely raising expectations, is not the way to do it."