Ethnic inequalities in patient satisfaction with primary health care in the UK: evidence from recent General Practitioner Patient Surveys (GPPS)

Aims and objectivesThis paper aims to improve understanding of factors that contribute to persistent ethnic disparities in patient satisfaction in the UK. The specific objectives are to (i) examine ethnic differences in patient satisfaction with their primary care in the UK; (ii) establish recent trends in patient satisfaction by ethnicity; and (iii) examine factors that contribute to ethnic differences in patient satisfaction. Data and methodsThe study is based on secondary analysis of recent General Practitioner Patient Survey (GPPS) datasets of 2019, 2020 and 2021. Descriptive bivariate analysis was used to examine ethnic differences in patient satisfaction across the three years. This was followed with multilevel linear regression, with General Practice (GP) at level-1 and Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) at level-2 to identify factors contributing to ethnic differences in patient satisfaction. ResultsThe findings show consistent negative correlations between the proportion of patients reporting good (very or fairly good) overall experience and each of the ethnic minority groups. Further examination of the distribution of patient satisfaction by ethnicity, based on combined ethnic minority groups, depicted a clear negative association between ethnic minority group and patient satisfaction at both GP and CCG level. Multilevel regression analysis identified several service-related factors (especially ease of using GP website and being treated with care and concern) that largely explained the ethnic differences in patient satisfaction. Of all factors relating to patient characteristics considered in the analysis, none was significant after controlling for GP service-related factors. ConclusionsEthnic minority patients in the UK continue to consistently report lower satisfaction with their primary health care in recent years. This is largely attributable to supply (service related) rather than demand (patient characteristics) factors. These findings have important implications for health care system policy and practice at both GP and CCG levels in the UK.