Patient satisfaction with GP services has improved, new figures suggest.
The latest GP patient survey, which is carried out by Ipsos for NHS England, found 75% of 702,000 respondents had a good experience at their practice, up slightly from 74% in 2024.
Some 70% also said their overall experience of contacting their family doctor was good, up year-on-year from 67%.
Louise Ansari, chief executive at Healthwatch England, said: “Primary care delivers 90% of the interactions people have with the NHS.
“With public satisfaction in the NHS declining, improvements to how people access care from their GP, pharmacy, dentistry, and other primary care teams is therefore vital.
“It’s promising that this year’s findings show modest increases in people’s overall experiences of GP, including an increase in the number of people given a choice of time, day or location for their most recent appointment, which we know from previous years’ results directly links to improvements in overall experience.
“However, our recent research shows there is a gap between the choices people want and the ones they get.”
More than half (53%) said it was easy to get in touch with their practice on the phone, up from 50% in 2024, while 51% said it was easy using the practice website, up from 48% last year.
Elsewhere, almost half (49%) told the survey it was easy getting in touch using the NHS App, up from 45% 12 months ago.
More than one in five people (22%) said they last contacted their practice online, up from 17% in 2024.
Those who last contacted their practice on the phone dropped by 68% to 62%.
It comes as the Government’s 10-year health plan aims to make better use of technology in the health service.
Part of the blueprint includes major changes to make the NHS App the “full front door to the entire” health service.
Tim Gardner, assistant director of policy at the Health Foundation, said: “Shoring up general practice needs to be at the heart of the Government’s approach to delivering the 10-year health plan.
“Although improvements are reported in ease of access, over one third of patients still find accessing their general practice difficult, and there are marked differences in experience between those living in the richest and the poorest areas.”
Dr Amanda Doyle, NHS England’s national director for primary care and community services, said: “The results reflect patients now being able to use the NHS App for more services, better phone systems to easily book an appointment, and the hard work of our general practice teams – but there is still more to do to improve patients’ satisfaction and experience.
“We will introduce further improvements including training more GPs and increasing the number of dentists, building online advice into the NHS App, establishing neighbourhood health centres in every community, and making it even easier to see your general practice team when you need to instead of having to turn to A&E.”
Elsewhere, 88% of those who responded to the survey said their experience with pharmacy services was good, up from 87% last year.
Reacting to the findings, Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, said: “While these figures show things are heading in the right direction, we know that there are still patients who are struggling to access the care they need, despite GPs working to their limits and beyond.”
