Trust in GPs: Findings from Focus Groups

Trust is fundamental in relationships where there is an element of risk and unequal knowledge between parties, such as in the relationship between a patient and their GP. This paper forms part of a larger study which explored how judgements regarding the trustworthiness of GPs are formed using a range of different methods. It reports on finding from focus groups which were conducted with people experiencing particular conditions that an analysis of the 2012 GP/Patient Survey indicated are associated with lower levels of trust in GPs. Six focus groups were conducted with people experiencing: chronic pain; mental health problems; Parkinson’s disease and visual impairment. The study sought to explore: what factors might explain why people with certain health conditions have lower levels of trust in GPs; their views on the services received in primary care; and, whether they felt that the 2012 NHS Health and Social Care Act (HSCA) was having an impact on their trust in their GPs. The study found that underlying patients’ conceptions of the behaviour and characteristics of a trustworthy GP appears to be an ideal of the family doctor of the past. The many demands on GPs, exacerbated by the HSCA, mean that a return to this ideal of a GP as a ‘family doctor’ is unlikely. While there are many barriers in contemporary general practice that make it difficult to develop the sorts of relationships of trust that patients seek, some participants in this study appeared to have been able to forge a relationship of trust with their GP with which they were satisfied, demonstrating that such relationships are possible despite the constraints patients and GPs experience. Possible explanations for lower levels of trust associated with certain conditions are explored.