Table 3.
The patient’s response to their perceived potentially harmful preventable problem and the primary care service involved for problems occurring in the last 12 months
| Primary care service | All reported problems | Clinician ranked ‘possibly or higher’ (lower threshold) |
| All services | 132 | 71 |
| GP surgery | 97 (73%) | 61 (86%) |
| Out of hours care/A&E/ambulance | 4 (3%) | 1 (1%) |
| Walk-in clinic | 2 (2%) | 0 |
| Dental surgery | 4 (3%) | 1 (1%) |
| Pharmacy | 7 (5%) | 6 (8%) |
| Community or district nursing | 4 (3%) | 0 |
| Opticians | 2 (2%) | 1 (1%) |
| Mental health services | 1 (1%) | 0 |
| Missing | 11 (8%) | 1 (1%) |
| Did you discuss the problem with primary care staff? | ||
| All respondents | 132 | 71 |
| Yes—discussed with primary care staff | 56 (42%) | 42 (59%) |
| No—did not discuss with primary care staff | 67 (51%) | 29 (41%) |
| Missing | 9 (7%) | 0 |
| Reason not discussed with primary care staff | ||
| All not discussing problem | 67 | 29 |
| Did not feel comfortable to discuss the problem | 16 (24%) | 8 (28%) |
| Could not find anybody with whom to discuss the problem | 21 (31%) | 10 (34%) |
| Unconcerned about the problem | 7 (10%) | 5 (17%) |
| Did not notice the problem at the time (or too ill) | 11 (16%) | 4 (14%) |
| Other | 5 (7%) | 2 (7%) |
| Missing | 7 (10%) | 0 |
| Profession of discussant | ||
| All discussing problem | 56 | 42 |
| GP | 28 (50%) | 19 (45%) |
| Practice manager | 5 (9%) | 5 (21%) |
| Receptionist | 2 (4%) | 1 (2%) |
| Practice nurse | 6 (11%) | 5 (12%) |
| Pharmacist or dispenser | 7 (13%) | 7 (17%) |
| General dental practitioner | 2 (4%) | 1 (2%) |
| Dietician | 1 (2%) | 1 (2%) |
| Missing | 5 (9%) | 3 (7%) |
| Role of discussant in patient’s care | ||
| Member of staff directly involved | 23 (41%) | 16 (38%) |
| Another member of staff at same institution | 25 (45%) | 20 (48%) |
| Above unclear | 8 (14%) | 6 (14%) |
A&E, accident and emergency; GP, general practitioner.