One of the best in England
Patients have again recognised Devon Doctors as one of the country’s leading providers of out-of-hours [OOH] GP care. The results of NHS England’s latest GP survey rank the OOH care it provides in South Devon and Torbay as the eighth best in the country, while North East and West Devon, which includes Exeter, ranks 10th of the 214 areas assessed.
Devon Doctors has been a regular fixture in top 10 nationwide providers over the course of the past decade. What is more, across the two areas 87 per cent of those surveyed said they had confidence and trust in their clinician – a figure which could be bettered in only nine other areas and none in the southern half of the country. Nationwide 79.1 per cent of patients reported that they had faith in their clinician. Seventy one per cent of respondents said that the time it took to receive care from Devon Doctors was ‘about right’, compared with just 58.9 per cent across the country as a whole, while 85 per cent said it was ‘easy’ to contact the OOH service, as opposed to 74.5 per cent nationwide.
The latest GP Patient Survey results show service users are extremely satisfied with the urgent out-of-hours provision in Devon. In Torbay 84% of patients rated the service as 'very good' or 'fairly good', as did 76% of patients in Plymouth and 79% of patients in other parts of the county. Nationally, the percentage of service users who rated their overall experience of out-of-hours GP services as 'very good' or 'fairly good' was just 74%.
In 2012 the Primary Care Foundation rated Devon Doctor's out-of-hours service as one of the best in England - with 75 per cent of service users in both Plymouth and Torbay rating the service as either 'good' or 'very good'.
In 2008 the Healthcare Commission investigation into urgent care services gave Devon Doctors the best scores in the country. We achieved an ‘outstanding’ level in several areas including telephone access and times for face-to-face assessments.
In 2006 the National Audit Office highlighted our out-of-hours service as an example of good practice, placing it within the top 10% of services nationally.
