GP Patient Survey 2022

NHS England together with Ipsos, 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.

Data are weighted by age and gender so that results resemble the eligible registered list population of each practice and ICS.

The latest survey consisted of around 2.47 million questionnaires sent out to patients aged 16 or over registered with GP practices in England from 10^th January 2022 to the 11^th April 2022. Around 720,000 patients completed and returned a questionnaire, resulting in a national response rate of 29.1%.

Changes to the 2022 survey

Minor changes were made to the questionnaire in 2022 to ensure that it continued to reflect how primary care services are delivered and how patients experience them. This followed more substantial changes in 2021. For more information on the redevelopment of the questionnaire please view the technical annex.

Trends

There are 5 comparable years of data (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022) for most of the GP Patient Survey questions.

Two key changes were made to the GP Patient Survey for the 2018 publication; the content of the GPPS questionnaire was changed significantly to reflect new ways of working and the sample frame was extended to include 16-17 years olds to improve inclusivity of the survey. These changes led to the loss of comparability for most question results at national level, and all question results at CCG and GP practice level. The 2018 results are the new baseline from which we can begin to monitor changes over time (there are a small number of questions that can be compared back to 2012 as these were not affected by the developments in the previous year).

Summary of key headlines

A summary of some of the key headlines from the 2022 weighted results are provided below. For a more detailed overview of the results please see the data and reports published on the survey’s main website:

• GP Patient Survey

Overall Experience

• The majority of patients (72.4%) rated their overall experience of their GP practice as good, with just over 1 in 3 (37.7%) rating their experience as ‘very good’. Compared with 2021, the proportion of patients who rated their experience as good has decreased by 10.6 percentage points from 83.0%.
• 56.2% of patients rated their overall experience of making an appointment as good, with just under one in 1 in 4 saying it was ‘very good’ (23.4%). Compared with 2021, the proportion of patients who rated their experience as good has decreased by 14.5 percentage points from 70.6%.
• Around 1 in 5 patients (22.6%) said they tried to contact an NHS service in the past 12 months when they wanted to see a GP but their GP practice was closed, either for themselves or for someone else. Of these, half (50.2%) rated their overall experience of these services as good, with around 2 in 10 (20.7%) saying it was ‘very good’. Compared with 2021, the proportion of patients who reported a good experience of NHS services when their GP practice was closed has decreased by 15.4 percentage points from 65.6%.

Access

• Of patients who had tried, around half (52.7%) said it was easy to get through to their GP practice on the phone, a decrease of 14.9 percentage points compared with 2021 (67.6%).
• Around in 8 in 10 (82.1%) said the receptionists at their GP practice were helpful, this is a 6.6 percentage point decrease from 2021 (88.7%).
• 55.2% of patients were satisfied with the appointment times available to them, a decrease of 11.8 percentage points compared with 2021 (67.0%).
• Just over two in five patients (43.4%) have a GP they prefer to see or speak to. Of these patients, 38.2% said they saw them always, almost always or a lot of the time, a decrease of 6.9 percentage points from 2021 (45.2%).

Online GP services

• Around 3 in 10 patients (30.8%) said they’d used online services in the last 12 months to order repeat prescriptions. Just over 1 in 5 patients (21.2%) said they’d used online services to book appointments and a similar proportion had an online consultation (21.7%). A smaller proportion of patients (16.5%) said they used online services to access their medical records in the past 12 months compared to other online services, however this is an increase of 9.5 percentage points from 2021 (7.1%).
• Approximately 3 in 5 patients (60.4%) had tried to use their GP practice website to access information or services, an increase of 7.8 percentage points compared with 2021 (52.7%).
• Of patients who had tried to use their GP practice website, 2 in 3 (66.7%) found their GP practice website easy to use, a decrease of 8.7 percentage points compared with 2021 (75.4%).

Making an appointment

•  58.5% of patients were offered a choice of appointment when they last tried to book one (a choice of time/day, place, type, and/or healthcare professional), a decrease of 10.0 percentage points compared with 2021 (68.5%).
• Around 7 in 10 patients (71.9%) were satisfied with the appointment they were offered last time they tried to make one, a decrease of 9.8 percentage points compared with 2021 (81.7%).
•  49.0% of patients said they got a telephone appointment the last time they tried to make an appointment, and 2.2% said they had an appointment to speak to someone online (46.9% and 2.6% for the 2021 survey respectively).
• (45.8%) said they got an appointment in person at their GP practice the last time they tried to make an appointment, 2.6% got an appointment in person at another general practice location, while 0.5% got a home visit.
• Of patients who were offered an appointment, most said they accepted the appointment (96.1%). Overall, around 1 in 6 patients (15.4%) did not get an appointment the last time they tried to make one for themselves or someone else (either an appointment was not offered or was not accepted).
•  55.4% said they had avoided making an appointment in the past 12 months if they needed one. Around 1 in 4 (26.5%) had done so because they’d found it too difficult (11.1% in 2021). Around 1 in 5 (19.7%) had done so because they were worried about the burden on the NHS (19.8% in 2021). Around 1 in 9 patients (12.0%) avoided making an appointment if they needed one because they were worried about the risk of catching COVID-19 (17.3% in 2021).

Last Appointment

• Around 9 in 10 patients (89.9%) felt involved in decisions about their care and treatment, a decrease of 3.0 percentage points from 2021 (92.9%).
• 8 in 10 patients (80.8%) felt the healthcare professional recognised or understood their mental health needs, a decrease of 5.2 percentage points compared with 2021 (86.0%).
• Most patients (93.1%) had confidence and trust in the healthcare professional they saw or spoke to, a decrease of 2.5 percentage points compared with 2021 (95.6%).
• Most patients (91.0%) felt their needs were met during their last appointment, a decrease of 3.1 percentage points from 2021 (94.0%).

Your Health

• One in seven patients (12.2%) felt isolated from others in the past 12 months, a decrease of 2.6 percentage points compared with 2021 (14.9%).
• 55.1% of patients said they had one or more long-term physical or mental health conditions, disabilities or illnesses, 41.7% of patients said they have none of these, and 3.2% preferred not to say.
• The most commonly reported conditions, disabilities or illnesses are ‘Arthritis or ongoing problem with back or joints’ (17.6%) and ‘High blood pressure’ (15.9%).
• Of patients who said they have any long-term condition, disability or illness and/or described themselves as having long COVID, almost 2 in 3 (64.7%) said they had support from local services or organisations to help them manage their condition(s) over the past 12 months, a decrease of 8.8 percentage points compared with 2021 (73.6%).
• Also over 3 in 4 patients (78.0%) with a long-term condition, disability or illness and/or described themselves as having long COVID, felt confident they could manage any issues arising from their condition(s), a decrease of 5.0 percentage points compared with 2021 (83.0%).
• Over 1 in 3 patients (35.0%) with a long-term condition, disability or illness and/or described themselves as having long COVID, have had a conversation with a healthcare professional about what is important to them when managing their condition(s), a decrease of 6.0 percentage points compared with 2021 (41.0%). Of these patients, 3 in 5 (61.4%) had agreed a plan with a healthcare professional to manage their condition(s), an increase of 1.9 percentage points compared with 2021 (59.5%).
• Over 9 in 10 patients with a plan (93.6%) found this plan (very or fairly) helpful in managing their condition(s), a decrease of 1.4 percentage point compared with 2021 (95.1%).

When your GP practice is closed

• Around 1 in 5 patients (22.6%) had contacted an NHS service when their GP practice was closed, an increase of 2.8 percentage points compared with 2021 (19.9%).
• Around half of patients (53.4%) thought the time taken to receive care or advice on this occasion was about right, a 16.3 percentage point decrease compared with 2021 (69.7%).

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 information

• Pre-release access list