Running a GPAQ survey in the surgery

The "consultation" version of GPAQ has been designed to allow individual assessment of doctors. The results can also be combined to produce information about the practice overall.

The following are some useful points to remember if you are running your own GPAQ survey in the surgery.

Preparation

Ensure you have plenty of pens and clipboards available for patients to use.

Photocopy around 120 questionnaires if you want 100 returns (i.e. 20% extra).

Number the questionnaires beforehand using the identification numbers at the top of the first page. Practice identification numbers only need to be used when more than one practice is included in a survey (e.g. PCT-wide surveys). The GP identification number should be for the GP the patient is to have the consultation with, which may not be the doctor they are registered with. The name of the doctor the respondent records can be used as a check that the GP identification number is correct when you come to enter the data. Patient identification numbers can also be recorded to enable checking of data entry at a later point (we recommend checking 10% of the data that is entered).

Display posters/notices informing patients that the survey is being carried out.

Provide a suitable box in which patients can confidentially return their questionnaires.

 

The sample

Tell patients about the survey when they book in at reception. It is often best to select one doctor’s surgery at a time to survey, rather than trying to survey all the patients attending the practice that day. If you do that, you can make sure that the questionnaires are marked up in advance with the doctor’s identification number, so that you can identify them later.

Make sure that respondents are in fact patients of the practice. Don't include temporary residents.

Make sure the patient is at least 16 years old.

It is very important that you give a questionnaire to every patient on the list who is able to complete one. Leaving some patients out will give biased results.

Explain that the questionnaire asks about patients’ views of the practice and the quality of care they receive from their GP.

Explain that the questionnaire is confidential and that the doctor will not be able to identify a patient's individual responses. Doctors SHOULD NOT hand out the questionnaires themselves to patients while they are in the consultation.

Patients can look at the questionnaire before they go in to see the doctor, but they should not fill it in until they come out.

When patients book in, ask them if they could stay behind for a few minutes to complete the questionnaire when they have seen the doctor.

Receptionists should remind people on their way out. If patients can’t wait, they should be given a stamped addressed envelope to return the questionnaire in.

It is very important to try and get as many back as possible. If you can have one member of staff responsible for running your survey on a particular day, this will make it easier.

Quality & Outcomes Framework guidance recommends that 25 questionnaires per 1000 registered patients on the practice's list should be returned. However, in terms of individual assessment we would still recommend that 50 questionnaires are collected per doctor for statistical reliability, even though many practices with smaller list sizes (e.g. less than 2000 patients) could collect less than 50 questionnaires per doctor.

Go to downloads to download the questionnaire to adminster in the surgery after consultations.