ABSTRACT
Length of waiting times in the surgery were found from previous studies also to be an important feature of the quality of the service for patients. The most frequent wait beyond the appointment time was between ten and 20 minutes in both survey rounds, with 79% being seen within 30 minutes in the first survey round, rising to 82% in the second. The proportions of patients who reported getting an appointment quickly in the Derbyshire Project were probably higher than is often the case elsewhere. In a comparable national study only 22% of 374 patients reported being seen within 24 hours in comparison with 61% of patients in the first survey round and 63% in the second survey round in the Derbyshire Project. A study on the effect of the introduction of hospital nurse practitioners in helping to reduce junior doctors’ hours found little evidence that the doctors had reduced their hours.
