JUDGING by the results of a survey to find out how happy people are with their GP surgeries, it appears people in Berwickshire are quite content.
The Better Together Scottish GP Patient Experience Survey 2009/10, the first of its kind, was a large postal survey sent to a random sample of more than 185,000 people registered as GP patients in Scotland.
The survey, commissioned by the Scotti
sh Government, asked patients about their experience of accessing their GP Practice, making an appointment, visiting reception, seeing either a nurse and/or doctor at the surgery, receiving prescribed medicine and care provided overall by the practice.
And the Borders as a whole, and Berwickshire, came out very well, with patients at Duns Medical Group rating their service particularly high.
A total of 188 patients on the books of the Medical Group responded to the survey and 100 per cent of them rated the service they received as good or excellent, 10 per cent above the national average.
Ninety six per cent of patients said they usually got to see their preferred doctor; 98 per cent were happy with the waiting time; 99 per cent happy with the overall arrangements for seeing a doctor and the same for nurses.
More specific questions were asked about the level of service provided by doctors and nurses and the people of Duns once again scored these highly.
Ninety nine per cent of patients who responded to the survey said they felt their doctor and nurse listened to them; 97 per cent felt their nurse had all the information required to treat them, 96 per cent for doctors; 98 per cent had confidence in the ability of both doctors and nurses and 98 per cent were happy with the amount of time they had with both.
The survey gathered 191 responses in Coldstream with 95 per cent of patients rating the service offered by their medical practice as good or excellent.
Overall arrangements to see both doctors and nurses were rated positively by 91 per cent of patients with 93 per cent happy with waiting times.
Ninety seven per cent of those surveyed felt the nurses at the practice listened to them, 96 per cent for doctors; 94 per cent had confidence in the ability of the nurses, doctors slightly lower at 89.
The biggest difference in score between doctors and nurses came when patients were asked if they were happy with the amount of time spent with each. Ninety seven per cent responded positively to the former but only 85 for the latter.
There was a similar gap when it came to the ratings of patients surveyed at Eyemouth Medical Practice.
Ninety two per cent of patients said they were happy with the amount of time they could spend with nurses while only 86 said the same for doctors.
But other questions spawned identical responses with 95 per cent of patients assured that doctors and nurses listened to them while other questions produced only slight differences such as confidence in their ability - 92 per cent for nurses at the practice and 90 per cent for doctors.
Ninety three per cent of patients rated the service at Eyemouth as either good or excellent, only one per cent lower than the Borders average.
Patients were also questioned on the medicine they received from their respective surgeries and patients in Berwickshire once again responded positively.
When asked if they knew enough about the medicines they were prescribed 100 per cent of patients at Duns put their tick in the positive box as did 98 per cent at Eyemouth and 91 per cent in Coldstream.
The results were slightly lower when it came to knowing about any potential side effects with 91 per cent of patients in Duns and Coldstream content and 90 per cent in Eyemouth.
And should there be any problems with their medication 98 per cent of those surveyed at Duns Medical Group said they were happy they knew what to do; with the results for Coldstream and Eyemouth 94 per cent and 91 per cent respectively.
Commenting on the Patient Experience Survey and its results, Ralph Roberts, chief operating officer for NHS Borders said: "The survey provides us with a range of information on the quality of healthcare experienced by patients in GPs practices across the Borders.
"It provides practices with feedback on their patients' experiences of service, relative to other practices in Scotland, as well as identifying areas of best practice and areas for improvement.
"The findings will help our practices improve the quality of healthcare offered across the Borders by allowing us to focus on the areas people tell us are important to them as well as those where we could do better."
National averages showed that Scottish patients' overall rating of care provided by their GP surgery was very similar to that for English GP patients and older patients were more likely to report a positive experience.
