We interviewed 14 citizens across Wales, recruited by a specialist agency and screened for a range of characteristics, including age group, gender, ethnicity, health conditions, and Welsh language skills.

These research sessions involved a higher proportion of people reporting poor health and disability than is seen in the general population. This is an established method for understanding people with more complex needs.

We cannot share further detail here for confidentiality reasons, as it could identify the individuals concerned.

Every health board covered

We spoke to GPs and GP surgery staff across every health board, through 60–90-minute interviews with 23 participants. We identified these individuals by communicating through our networks and asking them to fill in a form to indicate interest. This allowed us to select participants to reflect a mix of characteristics, such as urban/rural and small/medium/large practices, as well as levels of deprivation in the practice catchment area

The tables below show a breakdown of the practices and staff we engaged with.

Role Number
GP 7
Practice manager 12
Administration staff 1
Other 3
Size of practice Number
Small 3
Medium 15
Large 5
Catchment area Number
Urban 14
Rural 9
Practices in areas of deprivation Number 
Deprived 5
Not considered deprived 18

We reviewed other research, including quantitative studies (collection and analysis of numerical data), to strengthen the findings from the small sample sizes we used. We used these other studies to triangulate (compare findings) with our own primary research.

We also spoke to organisations or groups working in primary care, to learn about their work and their perspectives on the challenges GP services and citizens face. These included:

  • Welsh Government
  • Strategic Programme for Primary Care
  • Local health boards
  • Primary care clusters
  • Community health councils
  • General Practitioners Committee Wales 
  • Royal Pharmaceutical Society​
  • Digital Health and Care Wales
  • Technology Enabled Care Cymru
  • Rural Health and Care Wales
  • Representatives of community and allied health professionals
  • A social enterprise
  • Commercial digital providers