PRUComm researchers have published a new study in the British Journal of General Practice that found that patients’ abilities to see their preferred GP has fallen greater in English practices that have expanded, compared with those that stayed about the same size.
At the same time, English practices that have expanded have not achieved better access to care or provided better overall experience. Being able to see the same GP is highly valued by many patients and previous studies have suggested that it may lead to fewer hospital admissions and fewer deaths.
Over the last few years, the UK Government has encouraged expansion, mergers and greater collaboration between practices. This was intended to enable them to deliver services in new ways, work more efficiently and lengthen their opening hours. Most recently, in 2019, Primary Care Networks – collaborative groups of practices serving larger populations – have been set up across England.
The study analysed changes in reported ability for patients to see a preferred GP, their access to care and overall patient experience over the last few years based on responses to the UK GP Patient Survey. This survey asks questions of several hundred thousand people each year.
In the 644 practices that had expanded by more than 20% between 2013 to 2018, the proportion of patients saying they were able to see their preferred GP fell by 10% from 59% to 49%, while in the 5,602 practices that had stayed about the same size (i.e. less than 20% change in number of patients), the same proportion fell by 7% from 63% to 56%. The fall remained greater in practices that had expanded even after allowing for other characteristics of the practices, such as age distribution of the registered patients, rurality and level of poverty.
Professor
Forbes said: ‘Larger general practice size in England may well be
associated with slightly poorer continuity of care and may not improve
patient access. This goes to show that bigger may not be better with
English primary care. Better health outcomes for individuals and patient
experience for those with long-term conditions must be prioritised.
Continuity of care is an important feature of good quality primary care
and it is vital that we preserve this for the benefit of patients. It is
also important that we collect good data about collaborative working
and practice growth and monitor the effects on patient experience.’