[C]umbrian GPs have been rated better than the national average in many areas of a survey of patient experience carried out by NHS England and Ipsos MORI.
The survey asks patients to rate their experience of accessing primary care services, and GPs from NHS North Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) have consistently fared better than most.
It found that the NHS North Cumbria CCG area saw 88% of people surveyed rate their overall experience of their GP surgery as good, compared to 85% nationally.
In terms of accessing GP services in north Cumbria, 71% of patients said it was easy to get through to the GP surgery on the phone compared to 68% nationally.
When asked if patients had confidence and trust in the GP they last saw 97% of patients in north Cumbria said yes, compared to 95% nationally.
Cumbria’s out of hours GP service, Cumbria Health On Call (ChoC ), scored higher than the national average for how quickly patients can access GP care out of hours. 68% of patients here rated it as good, compared to 61% nationally. 74% described their out of hours experience as good compared to 66% across England.
Dr David Rogers, medical director for NHS North Cumbria CCG, said: “We know that across the UK GP services are under enormous pressure and for our GPs to be rated so well against the national results shows that they are delivering high quality services despite the challenging times.
“It is no surprise to me that our GPs and our CHoC service have rated so well for trust and confidence. I hope patients are reassured by these good results.”
The NHS England information was published this week.