ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2007
Does Advanced Access improve access to primary health care? Questionnaire survey of patients.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Association of Advanced Access With Primary Care Performance: A Systematic Review.Annals of family medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Eight Priorities for Improving Primary Care Access Management in Healthcare Organizations: Results of a Modified Delphi Stakeholder Panel.Journal of general internal medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Interventions to reduce wait times for primary care appointments: a systematic review.BMC health services research · 2017Pooled it
- Advanced access scheduling outcomes: a systematic review.Archives of internal medicine · 2011Pooled it
- The acceptability to patients of PhysioDirect telephone assessment and advice services; a qualitative interview study.BMC health services research · 2016Trial
- Bugbears in the Waiting Room: Revisiting Arber and Sawyer's Classic Study of GP Reception Work Using Ethnography in Eight English General Practices.Sociology of health & illness · 2025Article
- Advanced Access in Primary Healthcare and Its Effects on Emergency Department Utilization: A Rapid Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Access systems in general practice: a systematic scoping review.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2024Article
- Specifying cross-system collaboration strategies for implementation: a multi-site qualitative study with child welfare and behavioral health organizations.Implementation science : IS · 2024Article
- The Impact of Change in Hospital Admissions When Primary Care Is Provided by a Single Primary Care Physician: A Cohort Study Among HMO Patients in Israel.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2022Article
- Interprofessional advanced access - a quality improvement protocol for expanding access to primary care services.BMC health services research · 2021Article
- Advanced Access scheduling in general practice and use of primary care: a Danish population-based matched cohort study.BJGP open · 2020Article
- Development of a novel metric of timely care access to primary care services.Health services research · 2020Article
- Implementing advanced access to primary care in an academic family medicine network: Participatory action research.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2019Article
- Primary Care Outcomes Questionnaire: psychometric testing of a new instrument.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2018Article
- Agreeing the content of a patient-reported outcome measure for primary care: a Delphi consensus study.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2017Article
- Consult Coordination Affects Patient Experience.American journal of accountable care · 2017Article
- Research into practice: accessing primary care.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2015Review
- The future of primary care? Reflections on the Primary Care Workforce Commission report.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2015Article
- Patient and practitioners' views on the most important outcomes arising from primary care consultations: a qualitative study.BMC family practice · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundGeneral practices in England have been encouraged to introduce Advanced Access, but there is no robust evidence that this is associated with improved access in ways that matter to patients.
aimTo compare priorities and experiences of patients consulting in practices which do or do not operate Advanced Access. DESIGN OF STUDY: Patient questionnaire survey.
settingForty-seven practices in 12 primary care trust areas of England.
methodQuestionnaire administered when patients consulted.
resultsOf 12,825 eligible patients, 10,821 (84%) responded. Most (70%) were consulting about a problem they had had for at least 'a few weeks'. Patients obtained their current appointment sooner in Advanced Access practices, but were less likely to have been able to book in advance. They could usually see a doctor more quickly than those in control practices, but were no more satisfied overall with the appointment system. The top priority for patients was to be seen on a day of choice rather than to be seen quickly, but different patient groups had different priorities. Patients in Advanced Access practices were no more or less likely to obtain an appointment that matched their priorities than those in control practices. Patients in both types of practice experienced problems making contact by telephone.
conclusionPatients are seen more quickly in Advanced Access practices, but speed of access is less important to patients than choice of appointment; this may be because most consultations are about long-standing problems. Appointment systems need to be flexible to accommodate the different needs of different patient groups.
Indexed as
Identifiers
17688755PMC2099666What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.