Your local NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in Worcestershire are seeking the views of local patients on how additional appointments at GP surgeries should develop over the coming years.
As part of a national initiative, we want to look at how we can improve access to healthcare by offering routine appointments (urgent appointments are not included in this) outside of the core hours currently offered on weekdays (8am to 6.30pm), and the local need for routine appointments at weekends.
A high-level plan has been laid out in NHS England’s GP Forward View, issued in 2016, to deliver and extend effective access to out of hours and urgent care services locally.
There is a national and local shortage of GPs and other clinicians who work in general practice. This means that the additional services may be provided at a venue other than your own surgery and that you may not see your own GP or even a GP from your usual practice. Should that GP need to access your medical records, your consent would be sought.
In deciding what level of improved access to GP services is needed for the local population, the CCGs will consider the responses to this survey alongside evidence of GP and other clinical personnel, how GP appointments are currently used, and levels of usage of other services during extended access periods, such as GP Out of Hours services, A&E / Minor Injury Units and NHS 111.