Patient Awareness of Urgent Care and Out of Hours Services

Summary

In order to speak to people who use services regularly, we arranged to distribute surveys within GP surgeries throughout South Tees. This work was carried out with the support of our volunteers. 

GP surgeries which supported us with this work were:

• Bentley Surgery, Redcar
• Borough Road Surgery, Middlesbrough
• Cambridge Medical Group, Middlesbrough
• Garth Surgery, Guisborough
• Hillside Practice, Skelton
• Manor House Surgery, Normanby
• Martonside Medical Centre, Middlesbrough
• Woodside surgery, Loftus
• Zetland Practice, Marske.

Following feedback from GP surgeries we also visited the Accident and Emergency Department at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.

According to the results, 83% of respondents knew what do if they needed to see a GP out of normal hours. A total of 94% of respondents knew about the NHS non emergency number.

Although 94% of those questioned had heard of the NHS 111 non emergency number, there were a number of respondents with a limited understanding of under what circumstances it would be used for. The most common reasons for contacting 111 are highlighted below.

59% of the people that we spoke to had heard about the new GP Hubs. When we carried out this survey, the leaflet explaining the changes had already been delivered to homes throughout the South Tees. Many patients informed us that they had not, or did not, realise they had received the information through the door. Those patients who had received and read the leaflet informed us that it had been placed within a free magazine or newspaper.

This report also contains a response from the South Tees Clinical Commissioning Group.