Every day, NHS treats many patients and the majority of people are satisfied by GP surgery performance. More than 85 % rating their overall experience of their GP as good.

According to the GP Patient Survey 2016, more than 800,000 people across the country judged their experience of healthcare services provided by GP surgery, including access to GP surgeries, satisfying.

They expressed satisfaction also for what concerns making appointments, the quality of care received from GPs and practise nurses, with opening hours and out-of-hours NHS services.

Almost four in five patients would recommend their GP surgery to someone who has just moved to the local area and more than 73% of patients rated their overall experience of making an appointment as good.

Anyway, in some areas, there are fewer patients reporting their satisfaction about GP and other patients who say that they have enough support from local health services.

The survey of this year undergone a redevelopment. New questions have been added, in order to understand the patients’ experience.

Areas where it was reported to have seen some improvements, patients felt satisfied that their GP surgery is open are 75.9 %, and the number of patients who felt their surgery was open at times that are convenient for them increased of 74.6%.

Dr Arvind Madan, Director of Primary Care for NHS England, said:

“The GP Patient Survey shows patients appreciate the fantastic job GPs and the wider primary care work force are doing in challenging times. The findings also reinforce the case for investing in and strengthening primary care, exactly as we are now doing. Our General Practice Forward View, which committed to increasing investment in services culminating in an extra £2.4 billion a year by 2020/21 to support primary care, will stabilise and transform general practice, manage demand on services and expand the workforce.”

Key findings

• 85.2% described the overall experience of their GP surgery as good. This is 0.4 percentage points higher than the 2014-15 results.
• 73.4% of patients rated their overall experience of making an appointment as good. This is 0.1 percentage points higher than the 2014-15 results.
• 78.0% would recommend their GP surgery to someone who just moved into their local area. This is 0.5 percentage points higher than the 2014-15 results.
• 49.2% of patients said they have a GP they prefer to see or speak to.  This is 2.6 percentage points lower than the 2014-15 survey findings, and 7.2 percentage points lower than the 2011-12 survey findings.
• Of those who have a preferred GP, 58.4% said that they see or speak to them a lot of the time, almost always or always.  This is 1.2 percentage points lower than in 2014-15.
• 75.9% of patients are satisfied with the hours that their GP surgery is open. This is 1.0 percentage point higher than the 2014-15 results.
• 74.6% of patients said that their GP surgery is open at times that are convenient for them. This is an increase of 0.8 percentage points since the 2014-15 results.
• Overall awareness of online services has increased in the last year. 31.3% of respondents are aware that their practice offers online booking (4.3 percentage points higher than the 2014-15 results).