Patients across the East of England are reporting a significant rise in positive experiences at their GP practice, according to a recent survey – with improvements to NHS facilities also helping boost numbers of appointments.

Results from the GP Patient Survey, published yesterday, showed more than three quarters of patients in the East of England (75.7%) had a good overall experience with their GP practice.

This is up from 74.1% last year – an increase of 1.7%; one of the biggest increases in England.

These results follow the recent publication of the government’s 10 Year Capital Plan, confirming a £200 million investment to help GP surgeries across the country expand and modernise, creating capacity for more patient appointments, closer to where people live.

Almost a million more GP appointments in the East of England were unlocked in the last year following investment of over £12 million in building and equipment upgrades.

Since May 2025, this investment has been used across 85 NHS premises in the East of England to create an estimated 986,000 potential additional GP appointments.

Last year between June 2025 and May 2026 there were more than 45.2 million GP appointments available in the East of England – an increase of nearly three million, or 6.4%, from 42.5 million over the same period the year before.

Yesterday’s GP Patient Survey results also showed the vast majority of patients in the East of England reported they had a positive experience when contacting their GP practice – whether that was by phone, in person or online – with 71.8% saying their overall experience of contacting the practice was good.

Adam Cayley, Chief Operating Officer for NHS England – East of England, said: “We know that for many people, GP practices are the first point of contact for their healthcare needs – so it’s great to see that more people in the East of England are having a positive experience.

“These improvements don’t happen by accident. It’s thanks to hard work from staff across our primary care teams – such as through greater use of digital tools, expanding multidisciplinary teams or modernising facilities – that we’re seeing real progress in our general practice services, and crucially, as the survey results have shown, it’s our patients who are seeing the benefit.”

The positive feedback from patients seen in the GP Patient Survey is also being reflected across other primary care services, with positive patient experience reported in NHS dentistry and community pharmacy.

The survey results showed more than four in five people (81%) in the East of England were able to get an NHS dental appointment the last time they tried and almost nine out of 10 people in the region who have used a community pharmacy in the last year were happy with their experience.

ENDS

Notes to editors

• Across the East of England, contacting GP practices by phone remains the most common way patients reached their practice (almost 50%), but access is rapidly shifting online.
• Nationally, use of online GP practice services has increased, with 79.2% of respondents using online services in the last 12 months compared with 69.0% in 2024, and 30.8% contacting their practice online compared with 16.9% in 2024.

• These changes are helping give patients more choice in how they access care and sit alongside improving patient experience.
• Latest results from the GP Patient Survey are published at: GP Patient Survey
• Information on the government’s 10 Year Capital Plan, and its expected impact on GP appointments in the East of England, is available in this NHS England – East of England press release.

Statistics on GP appointment numbers are published at: Appointments in General Practice, May 2026 – NHS England Digital