Practice results and progress of analysis
As part of the New GP Contract (which came into effect on 1st April 2004) all practices are expected to undertake an annual patient satisfaction survey.
Two questionnaires have been nationally approved and these are GPAQ (General Practice Assessment Questionnaire) and IPQ (Improving Practice Questionnaire). More information on both questionnaires can be found by visiting the following websites
GPAQ www.gpaq.info
IPQ www.cfep.net
The majority of practices in the six Leicestershire PCTs and Northamptonshire Heartlands PCT will be supported by PCAG to undertake the GPAQ survey. PCAG will be responsible for printing all questionnaires, delivering and collecting these from practices, analysing data and producing final reports. Essentially, all practices will have to do is distribute the questionnaires to patients and collect these in.
This work will be undertaken with support from the local PCTs and 170 practices will be participating. The remaining 15 or so practices not working with PCAG on this project will still be undertaking either the GPAQ or IPQ survey before the end of March 2005.
A comprehensive schedule has been set in place detailing when practices will receive the questionnaires from PCAG. Once practices have received the questionnaires they will be given 10 weeks to collect the necessary number of responses.
The schedule for distribution of questionnaires is as follows
City West to receive questionnaires on Friday 16th April
Charnwood and Northwest Leicester - to receive questionnaires on Friday 7th May
Northamptonshire Heartlands - to receive questionnaires on Friday 4th June
Melton, Rutland and Harborough - to receive questionnaires on Friday 18th June
Hinckley and Bosworth - to receive questionnaires on Friday 2nd July
South Leicestershire - to receive questionnaires on Friday 2nd July
Eastern Leicester - to receive questionnaires on Friday 16th July
Patients should be re-assured that the purpose of both the GPAQ and IPQ questionnaires is to enable practices throughout the country to obtain valuable feedback and assist healthcare staff to improve the level of services and enhance the delivery of healthcare they provide. All questionnaires are anonymous and patients are not asked to give their name. Patients may be asked to give certain demographic information (e.g. age, gender, ethnicity, etc), but this information is used to ensure that an appropriate cross section of the community has been surveyed, not to identify patients. The patient questionnaires have been validated by the University of Manchester (GPAQ) and University of Exeter (IPQ).
To assist practices with their GPAQ work the National Primary Care Research and Development Centre have produced a handbook Improving your practice with patient surveys. The handbook includes full details on how to carry out the GPAQ survey, as well as advice on implementing changes and involving patients.
The handbook can be downloaded from the NPCRDCs website via www.npcrdc.man.ac.uk/Publications/Handbook.pdf. Alternately, you can order a copy of the handbook by calling the NPCRDCs order line on 0161 275 0611.