THESE ARE CURRENTLY THE LATEST BENCHMARKS AVAILABLE
National GPAQ benchmarks based on data collected during the 2005-6 contract year
IMPORTANT NOTE
Two versions of GPAQ
There are two versions of GPAQ in current use as part of the GP contract. They differ in how they were designed to be administered and vary slightly in what questions they contain. We have found that scores obtained using these versions of GPAQ are significantly different, even where the characteristics of patients completing them are the same.
The Consultation version (2.0) was designed to be completed by patients following a GP consultation at the surgery. It includes a three-part ‘enablement’ question (Question 11a-c) which asks how well the patient understands their problem, feels able to cope with it and feels able to keep healthy as a result of their consultation with the doctor. It does not contain any questions about nursing care at the practice.The Postal version (2.0) was designed to be sent to a random sample of patients from a practice’s list to be completed at home. Since it asks about the care patients receive in general (i.e. not about a specific visit) it does not include any ‘enablement’ questions, but does include questions about the quality of nursing care at the practice (Questions 11 and 12a-c). Rather than mailing out the postal version of GPAQ, some practices have instead been getting patients who visit the surgery to complete one, often while they wait for appointments to start. While this is not a recommended method for conducting a GPAQ survey, we accept that practices may see it as a cost-effective option.
Our analyses show that overall, GPAQ scores generated using the consultation version of GPAQ are higher than when the postal version is administered either in the surgery to waiting patients or by mail. Because of this, we have decided to separately report GPAQ benchmark scores for the two different versions of GPAQ (see the links below). You should compare your practice’s scores with the relevant set of 2005-6 benchmarks, depending which version of GPAQ was used in your practice.
(i) Consultation version: 2005-6 benchmarks
- includes enablement questions (11a-c); does not include questions about nurses.(ii) Postal version: 2005-6 benchmarks
- includes questions about nursing care (11, 12a-c); does not include enablement questions.What if I’m not sure which version I used?
If you have got a score for enablement, your practice used the Consultation version. If you have a score for nurses, you used the Postal version (even if it was given out in the surgery)
Please click on the links below for the benchmark figures you require