GP Patient Survey 2013-14
Aggregated data for July to September 2013 and January to March 2014.
NHS England together with Ipsos MORI, have today published the latest Official Statistics from the GP Patient Survey. The survey provides information on patients’ overall experience of primary care services and their overall experience of accessing these services.
The results are based on aggregated data from the two most recent waves of the survey. This aggregation creates sufficiently large sample sizes to publish statistically robust results at GP practice level. Results are also published at national, Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and area team level.
The latest survey consisted of 2.63 million questionnaires sent out across two waves, from July to September 2013 and again from January to March 2014. Of these, 903,357 respondents completed and returned a questionnaire, resulting in a response rate of 34.3%.
The latest results, for 2013-14, are comparable with the corresponding aggregate results for 2012-13 (published in June 2013), and 2011-12 (published in June 2012).
Use of the survey results
The 2013-14 results will be used to update indicators for three key national initiatives:
Summary of headline results
While the majority of patients continue to feel that they have a good experience of GP and out-of-hours services, the latest results show a reduction in the proportion of patients reporting on their experiences positively. This finding continues the downward trend in experience of GP and out-of-hours services since 2011-12.
A national overview of the results is provided below. For a more detailed breakdown of the results please go to
Overall experience summary
- 85.7% of patients rate their overall experience of their GP surgery as good, a decrease of 1.0 percentage point since the results published in June 2013 and 2.6 percentage points since June 2012.
- Three-quarters (74.6%) of patients rate their overall experience of making an appointment as good, a decrease of 1.7 percentage points since the results published in June 2013 and 4.5 percentage points since June 2012.
- Two-thirds (66.2%) of patients describe their overall experience of out-of-hours GP services as good, a decrease of 4.0 percentage points since the results published in June 2013 and 4.6 percentage points since June 2012.
GP services
- 78.7% of patients would recommend their GP surgery to someone new who just moved into their local area, a decrease of 1.3 percentage points since the results in June 2013 and 3.3 percentage points since June 2012.
- 9 out of 10 (91.9%) patients find making an appointment convenient, a decrease of 0.6 percentage points since the results published in June 2013 and 1.4 percentage points since June 2012.
- 72.9% of patients find that it is easy to get through to their GP surgery on the phone, a decrease of 2.1 percentage points since the results published in June 2013 and 5.1 percentage points since June 2012.
- 87.3% of patients find the receptionist at the GP surgery helpful, a decrease of 0.6 percentage points since the results published in June 2013 and 1.8 percentage points since June 2012.
- 92.5% of patients have confidence and trust in the last GP they saw, a decrease of 0.1 percentage points since the results published in June 2013 and 0.5 percentage points since June 2012.
Surgery opening hours
- 76.9% of patients are satisfied with their GP surgery opening hours, a decrease of 2.7 percentage points since the results published in June 2013 and 4.0 percentage points since June 2012.
- 74.6% of patients said that their GP surgery is open at times that are convenient for them, a decrease of 2.2 percentage points since June 2013 and 3.1 per percentage points since June 2012.
Booking appointments
- 78.7% of patients would prefer to book appointments by phone while 89.4% of patients actually do book appointments by phone; 33.8% of patients would prefer to book appointments online while 4.5% of patients actually do book appointments online.
Out-of-hours GP services
- 74.5% of patients describe contacting the out-of-hours GP services by telephone as easy, a decrease of 4.6 percentage points since the results published in June 2013 and 5.1 percentage points since June 2012.
- 58.9% of patients say that the time it took to receive care from the out-of-hours GP service was about right, a decrease of 3.1 percentage points since the results published in June 2013 and 4.4 percentage points since June 2012.
- 79.1% of patients report that they have confidence and trust in the out-of-hours clinician, a decrease of 2.3 percentage points since the results published in June 2013 and 2.7 percentage points since June 2012.
Managing your health
- 54.0% of patients report they have one or more long-standing health condition (LSHC), which is comparable to the results seen in June 2012 and June 2013.
- 87.7% of patients with a long standing health condition (LSHC) rate their overall experience of their GP surgery as good, 3.9 percentage points higher than patients with no LSHC (83.8%).
- 76.8% of patients with a LSHC rate their overall experience of making an appointment as good, 4.6 percentage points higher than patients with no LSHC (72.2%).
- 65.9% of patients with a LSHC rate their overall experience of out-of-hours GP services as good, 0.8 percentage points lower than patients with no LSHC (66.8%).
- 63.9% of people with a long-standing health condition feel they have enough support from local services to help them manage their condition, which is comparable to the results seen in June 2012 and June 2013.
Your state of health today
- Two-thirds (66.1%) of patients with a LSHC reported at least some problems with pain or discomfort, compared to one-quarter (24.6%) of patients with no LSHCs.
- 9.7% of respondents with a LSHC reported severe problems walking or said they were unable to walk about, compared to 0.2% of patients with no LSHCs.
- 41.7% of patients with a LSHC reported at least some problems with anxiety or depression, compared to 19.4% of patients with no LSHCs.
- 23.7% of patients with a LSHC said their activity on the day of the questionnaire had been limited due to illness or injury, compared to 10.0% of patients with no LSHCs.
Planning your care
- 3.2% of all patients responding to the questionnaire say they have a written care plan, 93.8% report that they do not have a written care plan and 3.0% report that they do not know if they have a written care plan.
- Of all those patients who say they have a written care plan, 60.8% say that a GP, nurse or other health professional regularly reviews their written care plan.
NHS dental access
- Results for questions in the GP Patient Survey relating to NHS Dental Services can be found here.
Supporting documentation