This week has seen the publication of the GP Patient Survey results for 2025.
Typically, the first practices hear about these results is the flurry of local news services responding on social media.
Dispiritingly, the reporting is often around practices which have attracted below-average survey responses. It is not uncommon to see headlines advertising revelations about 'the worst practices in the county'. This can create concerns for patients and distress for GPs and their teams. In our highly regulated roles, do we need these results? Should we heed them?
The survey is commissioned annually by NHS England and has been running now for nearly 20 years. The forms are sent out every January – at the height of our winter pressures – and in 2024 the questions changed significantly to reflect the newer ways of working we have adopted.
It is a big dataset with around 700,000 respondents. Importantly, it is independent of the practices themselves, being issued and collected centrally.
It is important to remember the severe pressures GPs face. GP numbers are static and do not reflect population growth, so fewer doctors are seeing more patients. We deliver nearly 30 million appointments per month in our practices, nearly half of which are from GPs themselves.
The last five years have seen us change our consulting practices in line with a strong push from NHS England to apply MGPA (Modern General Practice Access) standards. It is in this context that our patients are asked to feedback on the service they receive.
The service we provide is still good. 93 per cent of patients expressed trust and confidence in their healthcare professionals. 90 per cent said their needs were met. 72 per cent of appointments assessed were delivered face-to-face.
Access ratings are reflective of the sheer demand we face; half of patients found this easy but there is no evidence newer methods of access are helping shift this, with phone contact being preferred instead of online and the latter being no easier to navigate.
It is also the case that fewer than half of those patients with a favoured health professional saw them consistently – continuity being disincentivised in favour of access has been evident with the advent of MGPA and GPs have warned of the consequences of this for patient care.
We can see that the inverse care law still applies in 2025, with a clear correlation between decreased satisfaction and deprivation. It is no surprise local GP leaders responding to media stories on social media have highlighted this as a key consideration in assessing the results.
However, despite the naysayers, despite the 'see if your practice is one of lowest' headlines … 30 million appointments per month were undertaken, and 90 per cent of respondents say their needs are met. This is an astonishing achievement. Any enterprise would be delighted with these results.
This survey is not a stick with which to beat us. It is a demonstration of success. It is also a demonstration that, despite the sea-change in our triage and appointment systems in the past year, it is direct contact with a GP which counts.
James Booth is BMA GPC England contracts and regulation policy lead