The ALLIANCE Primary Care Lived Experience programme 2021 review

The Primary Care Lived Experience Programme launched to contribute to reform.

The ALLIANCE Primary Care Lived Experience Programme was launched in September 2021 and already is contributing to the reform of primary care landscape in Scotland.

The overarching aim of the programme is to give the people of Scotland the opportunity to contribute to the development of primary care services now and influence what they will look like in the future. This programme will empower people accessing primary care services to be involved as active and equal partners to inform and contribute to the ongoing design of primary care.

The focus of the programme will be on:

• General Practice: GPs and the multidisciplinary team
• Community pharmacies
• Dentists
• Optometrists

The programme, funded initially for 12 months by Scottish Government, was influenced by the House of Care programme and the ALLIANCE report “Heath, Wellbeing and the Covid-19 Pandemic: Scottish Experiences and Priorities for the Future“.

The programme’s first priority was around accessing GP services. We conducted an open access online survey to gather the experiences people in Scotland have had accessing General Practice services within the last 12 months.

This survey was designed with specific aims:

• To capture what people were experiencing when accessing general practice services
• To have insight into effectiveness of public messaging
• To identify gaps or priorities for future public messaging campaigns
• To have insight into people’s understanding of the roles of general practice team members
• To have insight into overall satisfaction levels of accessing general practice services

Given the short time frame, engagement opportunities were limited to an online survey. This was promoted though the ALLIANCE’s membership (over 3000 individuals and organisations) and social media platforms. This in turn was promoted by key partners including the Scottish Government and RCGP (the Royal College of General Practitioners). The survey questions were co-produced and approved by internal and external researchers as well as representatives from the Scottish Government, BMA (the British Medical Association) and RCGP.

We received 280 responses where people shared their experiences and views on what had worked well and what hadn’t worked well.  A full report detailing the findings will be published in early spring. Initial findings have been shared with Scottish Government and have influenced public messaging campaigns and highlighted areas of future focus.

Our next area of focus will be NHS dental services where we will endeavour to gain an insight into what peoples’ understanding is of what services they are entitled to on the NHS, whether they are receiving them or not and if not, what the opportunities and barriers are for these to be delivered. This work will commence early 2022.

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