Scottish Patient Experience Survey of GP and Local NHS Services 2011/12 Volume 3: Variation in the Experiences of Primary Care Patients

9 Detailed Findings - Urban/Rural Classification

9.1 The Scottish Government "6 fold Urban Rural" Classification has been used to identify the types of areas that respondents lived in. Respondents were assigned to a classification using their postcode. The breakdown of respondents is shown in Table 7.

Table 7 Respondents by urban/rural classification⁴

9.2 For the analysis, groups were compared with people living in large urban areas, the largest group. Of the 39 questions modelled, the type of area that people live in had a weak effect on experiences for 20 of them.

9.3 Patient experience varies from one type of classification to another, with better experiences for those living in remote rural areas and less positive experiences for those who live in accessible small towns. For the other areas (accessible rural, remote small towns and other urban areas) people had similarly positive experiences to those in large urban areas.

9.4 Accessing GP services was the main area where those living in remote rural areas had more positive experiences, and those in accessible small towns had less positive experiences.

9.5 Interestingly people living in remote areas, accessible small towns and other urban areas found it slightly more difficult to get their medicines.