Trends in feedback January to June 2024

Between January and June 2024, we received feedback from 417 individuals from talking to people at face-to-face events, telephone calls, emails, our website, social media and other sources. This is approximately the same as the previous six months (we heard from 422 individuals between July and December 2023). Between January and June 2024, we signposted 65 people to different organisations for further support. This is up slightly from 59 during the previous six months. Our social media content had a reach of 110,000 and almost 7000 engagements, and our website had 23,000 views, compared to a social media reach of 77,000, over 7,000 engagements and 16,000 website views between July and December 2023.

The feedback we have had for the past six months has mainly been around three service areas:

GP services

29% of all feedback received in January to June 2024 was to do with GP services (roughly the same proportion as July to December 2023). The main issues we received feedback on were difficulty getting an appointment and poor service. However, approximately one in four comments we received about GP services were positive which is an increase on the previous six months (one in five comments were positive between July and December 2023).

Hospitals
25% of all feedback received during the six months was about hospital services. The biggest concerns were around the distance to travel and lengthy waiting lists. There were also concerns raised about poor communication and poor quality of care when people got to hospital. However, just under one in three of the comments we received about hospitals were positive.

Dentists

Dentists were mentioned in 7% of all the comments we received. The vast majority of feedback was to do with the difficulties getting an NHS appointment. About 10% of respondents who fed back about dentists reported that the dentists they had spoken to were only accepting private patients. Approximately one in ten of the comments we received about dentists were positive.

These three categories made up almost two thirds (just over 61%) of the feedback we received in January to June 2024. This is up from the previous six months when these categories amounted to less than half of the feedback received (48% in July to December 2023).

Over a quarter of the feedback for GP services was about three particular GP practices. We will contact these practices individually to discuss the themes that have been raised in the feedback.

Signposting/requests for information

16% of the contacts we received in January to June 2024 were requests for information or signposting support. The top three areas were:

Adult social care – enquiries were mainly about getting care in the home and care assessments
Cost of living support – this included requests for information around benefits advice
COVID-19 vaccinations – enquiries were around eligibility and vaccination sites