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Patients' experiences of consultations with physician associates in primary care in England: A qualitative study.

Halter, M; Drennan, VM; Joly, LM; Gabe, J; Gage, H; de Lusignan, S (2017) Patients' experiences of consultations with physician associates in primary care in England: A qualitative study. Health Expect, 20 (5). pp. 1011-1019. ISSN 1369-7625 https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.12542
SGUL Authors: Drennan, Vari MacDougal

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Physician associates are new to English general practice and set to expand in numbers. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the patients' perspective on consulting with physician associates in general practice. DESIGN: A qualitative study, using semi-structured interviews, with thematic analysis. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Thirty volunteer patients of 430 who had consulted physician associates for a same-day appointment and had returned a satisfaction survey, in six general practices employing physician associates in England. FINDINGS: Some participants only consulted once with a physician associate and others more frequently. The conditions consulted for ranged from minor illnesses to those requiring immediate hospital admission. Understanding the role of the physician associate varied from 'certain and correct' to 'uncertain', to 'certain and incorrect', where the patient believed the physician associate to be a doctor. Most, but not all, reported positive experiences and outcomes of their consultation, with some choosing to consult the physician. Those with negative experiences described problems when the limits of the role were reached, requiring additional GP consultations or prescription delay. Trust and confidence in the physician associate was derived from trust in the NHS, the general practice and the individual physician associate. Willingness to consult a physician associate was contingent on the patient's assessment of the severity or complexity of the problem and the desire for provider continuity. CONCLUSION: Patients saw physician associates as an appropriate general practitioner substitute. Patients' experience could inform delivery redesign.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © 2017 The Authors Health Expectations Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: General Practice, Patient Acceptance of Health Care,, Patient Satisfaction, Physician Assistants, Primary Health Care, physician associates, Public Health, 1117 Public Health And Health Services, 1110 Nursing, 1701 Psychology
Journal or Publication Title: Health Expect
ISSN: 1369-7625
Language: eng
Dates:
DateEvent
15 September 2017Published
21 April 2017Published Online
4 January 2017Accepted
Publisher License: Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0
Projects:
Project IDFunderFunder ID
09/1801/1066National Institute for Health Researchhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000272
PubMed ID: 28429886
Go to PubMed abstract
URI: https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/109110
Publisher's version: https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.12542

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