As a Primary Health Network, we are guided by the insights of our region’s general practitioners (GPs) and Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) to help us design services and drive care quality improvement initiatives for our community.
In late 2021, WentWest surveyed more than 450 GPs and AHPs for its annual WentWest Needs Survey: General Practice and Allied Health.
A summary of insights and findings has now been published, offering an overview of key responses and areas of focus, including:
- The impact of COVID-19 on workloads and stress levels
- Telehealth
- Aged care
- Mental health support access and awareness
- HealthPathways
- Data reporting
- Team building capacity and capability
High Levels of Job Satisfaction, But Less Time with Patients
Despite the added pressure and uncertainty of COVID-19 workloads, it was heartening to see that 63% of GPs and 77% of AHPs reported a high level of work satisfaction.
However, time spent with patients dropped by 4% from the previous year, most likely due to remote consulting, with 88% of providers utilising telehealth regularly.
COVID-19 had an enormous effect on GPs’ ability to visit patients who were homebound or living in an aged care facility, with a 38-39% decrease in visits with 13-15% ceasing visits altogether.
Keeping you Informed and Building Your Capacity
The importance of clear communication channels also came to light in the survey, with 62% of GPs indicating that WentWest’s COVID-19 communications had helped them navigate their daily challenges around the pandemic. Supporting GPs with comprehensive COVID-19 communications was a key focus for us in 2021 and has been again in 2022.
Despite the challenges of COVID-19 the WentWest Practice Development Team (PDT) reached 1,582 GPs across 352 practices in 2021, using a combination of face-to-face, remote and phone meetings. When asked how the PDT had assisted their practice, 47% of GPs rated the support received in improving practice systems as high or very high, and 40% rated the support received in building practice capacity as high or very high.
Mental Health Awareness and Access a Priority
GPs and AHPs told us that awareness of mental health services was a barrier to accessing support for your patients, with access especially problematic as service intensity increased. 45-54% of GPs reported that high-intensity, acute and specialist interventions were very hard to access. As a result, WentWest is making mental health services awareness and access a priority in 2022 with several initiatives already underway, including more mental health features in the Weekly Update newsletter, production of mental health videos, a collection of mental health service consumer stories, and mental health awareness campaigns on social media. A mental health toolkit is coming soon.
Data, reporting and digital access
Growth in the digital space among health professionals continues to increase, with over 90% of GPs reporting that they use health intelligence reporting to make and drive change in their practices. HealthPathways also continues to be highly effective, with more than 80% of GPs utilising the platform reporting that it has a moderate to very high impact on their ability to access clinical practice guidelines.
Next steps
WentWest is using the detailed data contained within these survey findings to develop and design new services and look for ways to improve initiatives within our community. Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing more updates detailing how we’re addressing these results.
This survey is an integral part of our engagement with GPs and Allied Health Professionals across Western Sydney. Thank you to all the GPs and AHPs who responded to the 2021 survey; your insights are greatly valued.
This year’s GP and AHP Needs Survey will be launching in October 2022. By taking part, you will continue to help us identify critical areas of need and design ways to improve awareness and access.
Read the 2021 Needs Survey Summary Report.