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Out-Of-Hours Services
2 Survey Design
Following the introduction of new resources
to support the development of GP out-of- hours services,
the Eastern Health and Social Services Board (EHSSB) discussed
ways of maintaining the quality of the service provided
with the newly-formed GP co- operatives. In their first
two years of development, the public raised two issues with
the EHSSB in relation to the new services. As a result,
the EHSSB and the out-of- hours co-operatives agreed that
they should carry out a survey of patient satisfaction.
To make the results as useful as possible,
they agreed to use a questionnaire design that all the out-of-hours
services could use, including the Contactors Bureau. This
also allowed the four services to compare their results
and share best practice. The EHSSB asked the Eastern Health
and Social Services Council (EHSSC) to carry out the study,
although the EHSSC and the GP out-of-hours services organised
the postal survey together. The types of questionnaires
we used in the survey had previously been used to assess
out-of-hours services provided by GP co-operatives in Scotland*
(please see bottom of page).
We gave out six types of questionnaires
to adult patients and parents of children who were patients.
Adult patients (16 years or over) filled in the questionnaires
themselves, but if the patients were children (under 16
years), their parents filled in the questionnaires. We used
different questionnaires for:
- patients who were given advice by telephone;
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- patients who visited the out-of-hours centres
to see GPs; and
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- patients who received a home visit from a GP.
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We gave out the questionnaires over a 28-week
period, from August 1999 to February 2000. We asked each
service to give out 66 questionnaires each week during this
period - 2000 questionnaires in total. We did not send questionnaires
to families if this would have caused distress, for example,
where the patient had died.
Staff from the out-of-hours services gave
out the questionnaires in order to maintain patient confidentiality.
No patient details were made available to the EHSSC. We
provided freepost envelopes to the patients and parents,
so they could return their questionnaires to the EHSSC.
The staff of the out-of-hours services did not see the questionnaires
once they had been filled in. The number of filled-in questionnaires
we received was 3033 - that was a total response rate of
38%.
We analysed responses to questionnaires
according to the type of contact the patient had with a
GP (phone advice, visit to centre or home visit), and whether
the person filling in each questionnaire was an adult patient
or a parent of a child patient. We also compared the four
out-of-hours services, with their agreement. Where appropriate,
we also compared our results with the results from a survey
of the DALDOC out-of-hours service in the Northern Health
and Social Services Board** (please see bottom of page).
*Heaney, D. J. and Gorman, D. (I 997) Evaluation
of Esk Valley emergency services: First year Interim Report,
Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh
**MC Cay, C., Heaney, D., Donnelly, M., Steele, K. and Jaminson,
J. (1998) An evaluation of GP out-of- hours arrangements
in the Northern Health and Social Services Board, Belfast:
Queen's University.
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