Cargando…

Use of the NHS Choices website for primary care consultations: results from online and general practice surveys

OBJECTIVES: To determine the effect of using the NHS Choices website on primary care consultations in England and Wales. We examined the hypothesis that using NHS Choices may reduce the frequency of primary care consultations among young, healthy users. DESIGN: Two cross-sectional surveys of NHS Cho...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Murray, Joanna, Majeed, Azeem, Khan, Muhammad Saleem, Lee, John Tayu, Nelson, Paul
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Royal Society of Medicine Press 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3147242/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21847438
http://dx.doi.org/10.1258/shorts.2011.011078
_version_ 1782209310655250432
author Murray, Joanna
Majeed, Azeem
Khan, Muhammad Saleem
Lee, John Tayu
Nelson, Paul
author_facet Murray, Joanna
Majeed, Azeem
Khan, Muhammad Saleem
Lee, John Tayu
Nelson, Paul
author_sort Murray, Joanna
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: To determine the effect of using the NHS Choices website on primary care consultations in England and Wales. We examined the hypothesis that using NHS Choices may reduce the frequency of primary care consultations among young, healthy users. DESIGN: Two cross-sectional surveys of NHS Choices users. SETTING: Survey of NHS Choices users using an online pop-up questionnaire on the NHS Choices website and a snapshot survey of patients in six general practices in London. PARTICIPANTS: NHS Choices website users and general practice patients. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: For both surveys, we measured the proportion of people using NHS Choices when considering whether to consult their GP practice and on subsequent frequency of primary care consultations. RESULTS: Around 59% (n = 1559) of online and 8% (n = 125) of general practice survey respondents reported using NHS Choices in relation to their use of primary care services. Among these, 33% (n = 515) of online and 18% (n = 23) of general practice respondents reported reduced primary care consultations as a result of using NHS Choices. We estimated the equivalent capacity savings in primary care from reduced consultations as a result of using NHS Choices to be approximately £94 million per year. CONCLUSIONS: NHS Choices has been shown to alter healthcare-seeking behaviour, attitudes and knowledge among its users. Using NHS Choices results in reduced demand for primary care consultations among young, healthy users for whom reduced health service use is likely to be appropriate. Reducing potentially avoidable consultations can result in considerable capacity savings in UK primary care.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-3147242
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2011
publisher Royal Society of Medicine Press
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-31472422011-08-16 Use of the NHS Choices website for primary care consultations: results from online and general practice surveys Murray, Joanna Majeed, Azeem Khan, Muhammad Saleem Lee, John Tayu Nelson, Paul JRSM Short Rep Research OBJECTIVES: To determine the effect of using the NHS Choices website on primary care consultations in England and Wales. We examined the hypothesis that using NHS Choices may reduce the frequency of primary care consultations among young, healthy users. DESIGN: Two cross-sectional surveys of NHS Choices users. SETTING: Survey of NHS Choices users using an online pop-up questionnaire on the NHS Choices website and a snapshot survey of patients in six general practices in London. PARTICIPANTS: NHS Choices website users and general practice patients. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: For both surveys, we measured the proportion of people using NHS Choices when considering whether to consult their GP practice and on subsequent frequency of primary care consultations. RESULTS: Around 59% (n = 1559) of online and 8% (n = 125) of general practice survey respondents reported using NHS Choices in relation to their use of primary care services. Among these, 33% (n = 515) of online and 18% (n = 23) of general practice respondents reported reduced primary care consultations as a result of using NHS Choices. We estimated the equivalent capacity savings in primary care from reduced consultations as a result of using NHS Choices to be approximately £94 million per year. CONCLUSIONS: NHS Choices has been shown to alter healthcare-seeking behaviour, attitudes and knowledge among its users. Using NHS Choices results in reduced demand for primary care consultations among young, healthy users for whom reduced health service use is likely to be appropriate. Reducing potentially avoidable consultations can result in considerable capacity savings in UK primary care. Royal Society of Medicine Press 2011-07-07 /pmc/articles/PMC3147242/ /pubmed/21847438 http://dx.doi.org/10.1258/shorts.2011.011078 Text en © 2011 Royal Society of Medicine Press http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/), which permits non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Murray, Joanna
Majeed, Azeem
Khan, Muhammad Saleem
Lee, John Tayu
Nelson, Paul
Use of the NHS Choices website for primary care consultations: results from online and general practice surveys
title Use of the NHS Choices website for primary care consultations: results from online and general practice surveys
title_full Use of the NHS Choices website for primary care consultations: results from online and general practice surveys
title_fullStr Use of the NHS Choices website for primary care consultations: results from online and general practice surveys
title_full_unstemmed Use of the NHS Choices website for primary care consultations: results from online and general practice surveys
title_short Use of the NHS Choices website for primary care consultations: results from online and general practice surveys
title_sort use of the nhs choices website for primary care consultations: results from online and general practice surveys
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3147242/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21847438
http://dx.doi.org/10.1258/shorts.2011.011078
work_keys_str_mv AT murrayjoanna useofthenhschoiceswebsiteforprimarycareconsultationsresultsfromonlineandgeneralpracticesurveys
AT majeedazeem useofthenhschoiceswebsiteforprimarycareconsultationsresultsfromonlineandgeneralpracticesurveys
AT khanmuhammadsaleem useofthenhschoiceswebsiteforprimarycareconsultationsresultsfromonlineandgeneralpracticesurveys
AT leejohntayu useofthenhschoiceswebsiteforprimarycareconsultationsresultsfromonlineandgeneralpracticesurveys
AT nelsonpaul useofthenhschoiceswebsiteforprimarycareconsultationsresultsfromonlineandgeneralpracticesurveys