Access to GP Practices in Wales - Older People's Experiences
GP services are a lifeline for older people, but more and more are finding it difficult to access them.
Access to GP practices has been consistently raised as an issue with the Commissioner by older people throughout Wales. In recent years, changes to the way that services are being provided – in particular, the rapid shift towards delivering services online, which was significantly accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic – risk leaving older people behind, especially those who are digitally excluded.
In 2023, the Commissioner invited older people to share their recent experiences of accessing GP practices in Wales, including making and attending appointments, relationships and interactions with doctors and surgery staff, continuity of care and clinician, and the surgery environment itself, as well as other issues that affect access to GP practices. With crucial support from national and local older people’s organisations, who distributed questionnaires on behalf of the Commissioner, over 900 completed surveys were received in total, from all over Wales, and the Commissioner is grateful to everyone who shared their experiences.
The Commissioner published her report Access to GP Practices in Wales: older people’s experiences in March 2024. The report made a number of recommendations about the action that GP practices, health boards, local authorities and others should take to improve older people’s experiences.
The report highlights the improvements we as a practice have recently implemented. However, he commented, "Without adequate funding from the Welsh Government, we will never be able to meet the vast majority of patients' needs and expectations of GP services."
