GP Patient Survey: Experiences of people with a learning disability

Learning disabilities are a wide range of conditions which affect the way a person learns new things throughout their lifetime, particularly how they understand information and communicate. Evidence suggests that health outcomes for people with a learning disability tend to be worse and that they are more dependent on health services.

Tom Rossington looks at data from the 2018 GP Patient Survey (GPPS) and what the survey tells us about the experiences of people living with a learning disability.

Overall, 2% of those taking part in the survey said they had a learning disability, which impacts how healthy they are, how they look after themselves and their experience of using a GP service.

For example, people with a learning disability are more likely to have felt isolated (22%), compared with people without a learning disability (6%). They also reported having more trouble with their day-to-day activities; 80% compared with 58% without a learning disability. 

With regards to patient’s health, fewer people with a learning disability reported that they were confident in managing their own health (58%), compared with people without a learning disability (85%).

Looking at support, people with a learning disability are less likely to feel supported to manage their health (70%) than people without a learning disability (80%). Additionally, people with a learning disability (34%) are also less likely to have had a conversation with someone about their health and what’s important to them than people without a learning disability (40%).

People with learning disabilities can have a different experience of using GP services. For example, fewer people with a learning disability know they can book appointments online (30%) than people without a learning disability (41%). Similarly, people with a learning disability are more likely to have contacted another NHS service when their practice was closed (22% compared with 13% of people without a learning disability).

Further analysis

GPPS provides a rich source of information on patient experiences of their GP practice. You can access and analyse the results by going to https://www.gp-patient.co.uk/ or email the team.

Technical note

Ipsos administers GPPS on behalf of NHS England. Approximately 2.2 million questionnaires were sent out nationally, and 758,165 were returned completed between January and March 2018. This represents a response rate of 34%. Data is weighted to match the profile of the population. Read further technical information about how the survey works here.

For more information about the survey, and to access the data see https://www.gp-patient.co.uk.