GP access for inclusion health groups: perspectives and recommendations

Problem

General practice has seen the widespread adoption of remote consulting and triage systems. There is a lack of evidence exploring how inclusion health populations have been impacted by this transformation. This study was co-designed with experts by experience and aimed to explore the perspectives and experiences of people from inclusion health groups when trying to access GP care.

Approach

A mystery shopper exercise involving 39 in-person practice visits and 13 phone-calls were undertaken. The findings were reflected upon by a multidisciplinary stakeholder group which identified recommendations for improvements. Assessing the experiences of access to primary care can be very challenging and often relies on patient surveys with variable response rates. Such data doesn’t include the voice of service users who don`t get beyond the first barrier to access. By using mystery shopping as a research tool this study provided detailed insights and feedback on GP registration and access from a group of service users that isn’t represented in patient satisfaction surveys.

Findings

Only 31% of the mystery shopper visits (n=8) resulted in registration and the offer of an appointment to see a GP for an urgent problem. None of the mystery shoppers was able to book an appointment over the phone but 10/13 felt that they would be able to register and make an appointment if they followed the receptionist`s instructions. Most mystery shoppers felt respected, listened to and understood the information provided to them. Just under half of the practices (46%, n=6) received positive comments on how accessible and supportive their spaces felt. Practice and system-level recommendations were identified by the stakeholder group. These included practice, advocacy and system level recommendations.

Consequences

Ongoing GP access issues persist for inclusion health populations. We identified practice and system level recommendations for improving access for this vulnerable population. To date, there has been little published research exploring the impact of remote consultation and triaging on inclusion health populations’ ability to access and effectively navigate GP care. This study provides an analysis of the GP access issues faced by inclusion health populations and identifies solutions that can assist mitigate these challenges.