GP patient satisfaction in decline as patients avoid making appointments

Across England, patient satisfaction with GP practices is declining, with only 54% of patients describing their experience of booking an appointment as good, while 71% of patients would describe their overall experience at their GP as good.¹

This represents a significant decline in patient satisfaction over the last five years, with 84% of patients describing their overall GP experience as good in 2018.¹ Matching this, the number of patients per GP has been worsening, with the number of patients per GP increasing 20% from 2013 to 2023.²

Since 2022, more than half of patients now report that they have avoided making a GP appointment in the last 12 months, and just 7% of patients were offered a choice of healthcare professional when making their appointment.¹



Noticeably, the way in which GP practices are providing health services is changing. More than a third of patients (38%) now report that their last appointment was virtual, either over the phone, a video call or via messaging. This compares to just 10% in 2020.¹

Alongside changes in how appointments take place, the staff make-up at GP practices is also changing. While the number of GPs and nurses has modestly increased since 2015 by 9% and 11% respectively, the number of other patient care staff (e.g. healthcare assistants) has almost doubled from 9k to 17k over the same period. To put this in context, over this same period, the number of registered patients in England increased by 10% from 2015 to 2023.²



Importantly, increasing dissatisfaction with GP services is a reflection of wider structural issues and not the staff. GP staff, under increasingly strained conditions, are providing quality services to patients. 91% of patients say their needs were met at their last appointment, with 93% saying they had trust and confidence in their healthcare professional.¹

Nevertheless, increasing numbers of patients per GP, real-term spending cuts in local authority health services³ and an ageing population⁴ have coalesced to worsen overall service levels, as reflected by the headline patient satisfaction scores.

This apparent overall deterioration in GP services appears to mirror wider NHS trends, with the waiting list for elective services - such as hip replacements - at record levels,⁵ and staff satisfaction in decline.⁶

As the country heads towards the next election, how to fix primary and social care services is likely to prove a key battleground, with serious solutions required to combat serious problems.

Sources:

1. NHS England GP Patient Survey 2018-2023
2. HealthSay analysis of NHS England patient and workforce data
3. Spending on public health. The King’s Fund. https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/nhs-in-a-nutshell/spending-public-health
4. Future of an Ageing Population. Government Office for Science. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5d273adce5274a5862768ff9/future-of-an-ageing-population.pdf
5. NHS waiting list in England hits record 7.7 million. Royal College of Surgeons of England. https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/news-and-events/media-centre/press-releases/nhs-waiting-list-hits-record-high/
6. The NHS Staff Survey 2022: what do the results tell us? The King’s Fund. https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2023/04/nhs-staff-survey-2022-what-do-results-tell-us