Healthwatch Derbyshire To Investigate Public Awareness Of Online GP Services

Healthwatch Derbyshire is conducting a survey to determine whether patients in the county are aware of the GP services available to them online, and to investigate the accessibility of services on GP websites.

All GP practices across England should be offering online GP services to patients who request it. This is required by the General Medical Services (GMS) and Personal Medical Services (PMS) regulations. They are also required to promote the online services they provide.

Online services should include appointment bookings, ordering repeat prescriptions, amending personal details and access to summary information held in patients’ records.

A national GP patient survey by NHS England in 2014 found that 34% of patients said their preferred method of booking a GP appointment would be online. However, just a year on, the same survey found that only 6% of patients had booked a GP appointment online.

Healthwatch Derbyshire CEO Karen Ritchie explained: “Our survey aims to find out if Derbyshire residents know about the online GP services that are available to them and identify the reasons patients do not use them.

“We will then share the findings of the survey, along with any recommendations, with the providers and commissioners of Derbyshire GP services.”

The survey questionnaire will be handed out at various events across the county in the coming weeks and is also available online at: http://www.healthwatchderbyshire.co.uk/2016/05/gp-online-services-survey/