News

GP Patient Survey 2014-15

Aggregated data for July to September 2014 & January to March 2015

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.

Results are based on aggregated data from the two most recent waves of the survey. This is to create sufficiently large sample sizes to publish statistically robust results at GP practice level. Results are also published at national, regional, area team and Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) level.

The latest survey consisted of around 2.64 million postal questionnaires sent out to adults registered with GP practices in England across two separate waves, from July to September 2014 and again from January to March 2015. Over 858,000 patients completed and returned a questionnaire, resulting in a response rate of 32.5%.

For further general information about the GP Patient Survey, see NHS England’s statistical pages at

Summary of key headline results

A summary of some of the key headlines from the 2014-15 weighted results is provided below. For a more detailed overview of the results please see the data and reports published on the survey’s main website:

Overall experience

  • The majority of patients (84.8%) rate their overall experience of their GP surgery as good. Compared to the results for 2013-14, this has decreased by 0.9 percentage points from 85.7%.
  • Nearly three in four patients (73.3%) rate their overall experience of making an appointment as good. Compared to the results for 2013-14, this has decreased by 1.3 percentage points from 74.6%.
  • More than three in four patients (77.5%) would recommend their GP surgery to someone who has just moved into their local area, a decrease of 1.1 percentage points since the 2013-14 results.
  • More than one in ten patients (13.6%) say they tried to call an out-of-hours GP service in the past 6 months. Of these, more than two in three patients (68.6%) rate their overall experience of out-of-hours GP services as good, an increase of 2.4 percentage points since the results for 2013-14.

Access to in-hours GP services

  • Seven in ten patients (70.6%) say it is easy to get through to their GP surgery using the phone, a decrease of 2.3 percentage points since the 2013-14 results.
  • The majority of patients (86.8%) say the receptionists at their GP surgery are helpful, a decrease of 0.5 percentage points since the 2013-14 results.
  • More than one in two patients (51.8%) say they have a preferred GP, a decrease of 3.1 percentage points since the 2013-14 results. Of patients who say they have a preferred GP, three in five (59.6%) say they ‘always or almost always’ see them or see them ‘a lot of the time’, a decrease of 1.0 percentage point since the 2013-14 results.
  • Most patients (85.2%) say they were able to get an appointment to see or speak to someone the last time they tried, a decrease of 0.5 percentage points since the 2013-14 results.
  • Of patients who were able to get an appointment, more than nine out of ten (91.8%) say their appointment was convenient, a decrease of 0.1 percentage points since the 2013-14 results.

Online GP services

  • The majority of patients normally either book their appointment over the phone (87.4%) or in person (27.8%), however patients increasingly say they normally book appointments to see a GP or nurse online, which increased by 1.5 percentage points from 4.5% in 2013-14 to 5.9% in 2014-15.
  • More than one in four patients (27.0%) are aware that they can book appointments online, while a similar proportion (27.9%) say they are aware they can order repeat prescriptions online. Fewer patients (2.4%) say they are aware they can access medical records online. Over half of all patients (52.6%) are unsure whether these services are available at their GP surgery, while one in ten (10.4%) believes that none of these options are available.
  • Compared to awareness of online services, use of the same services in the last six months is relatively low: One in ten patients (10.1%) say they used online services to order repeat prescriptions, while 6.4% say they used online services to book appointments and 0.3% say they used online services to access their medical records.

Waiting times

  • Nearly two in three patients (64.8%) say they normally wait 15 minutes or less after their appointment time to be seen, a decrease of 1.0 percentage point since the 2013-14 results.
  • More than half of all patients (57.7%) say ‘they don’t normally have to wait too long’ to be seen, a decrease of 0.5 percentage points since the 2013-14 results.

Confidence and trust

  • The majority of patients (92.0%) have confidence and trust in the last GP they saw, a decrease of 0.5 percentage points since the 2013-14 results.
  • More than four out of five patients (84.7%) have confidence and trust in the last nurse they saw, a decrease of 1.5 percentage points since the 2013-14 results.
  • Four in five patients (80.7%) say they have confidence and trust in the out-of-hours clinician, an increase of 1.6 percentage points since the 2013-14 results.

Opening hours

  • Three in four patients (74.9%) are satisfied with their GP surgery opening hours, a decrease of 2.0 percentage points since the 2013-14 results.
  • Nearly three in four patients (73.8%) say their GP surgery is open at times that are convenient to them, a decrease of 0.8 percentage points since the 2013-14 results.

Out-of-hours GP services

Of patients who tried to call an out-of-hours GP service in the last 6 months:

  • More than three in four patients (76.9%) say it was easy to contact the out-of-hours GP service by telephone, an increase of 2.4 percentage points since the 2013-14 results.
  • Three in five patients (60.7%) say that the time it took to receive care from the out-of-hours GP service was about right, an increase of 1.8 percentage points since the 2013-14 results.

Managing your health

  • Over half of all patients (54.0%) have one or more long standing health condition (LSHC); this is comparable with the 2013-14 results.
  • The most commonly reported LSHCs are high blood pressure (18.1%) or arthritis or a long-term joint problem (12.7%).
  • Of patients who say they have one or more LSHC, 63.3% say they had enough support from local services or organisations to help them manage their condition, a decrease of 0.6 percentage points since the 2013-14 results.
  • Of all patients, more than nine out of ten patients (92.6%) say they are confident in managing their own health, an increase of 0.1 percentage points since the 2013-14 results.

Care planning

The survey asks patients about written care plans. It defines a care plan as a written document that acts as “an agreement between you and your health professional(s) to help you manage your day-to-day health”.

  • In 2014-15, 3.2% of patients said they have a written care plan; this is comparable with the 2013-14 results.
  • Most patients who have a written care plan (71.5%) say they got help to put their plan together, a decrease of 0.4 percentage points since the 2013-14 results.
  • Of patients who have a written care plan, 68.3% say they use their plan to manage their day-to-day health, a decrease of 3.4 percentage points since the 2013-14 results.
  • Of patients who have a written care plan, 59.0% say they regularly review their plan with their GP, nurse or another health professional, a decrease of 1.8 percentage points since the 2013-14 results.

NHS Dentistry results

  • Results for questions in the GP Patient Survey relating to NHS dental services forms part of NHS England’s dental statistics.

Supporting documentation