NHS support

General Information

Please note that Ipsos MORI cannot accept any more blue-coloured questionnaires which were mailed out in January 2012. This survey has now closed.

Aims of the Survey

The Department of Health (DH) is continuing the GP Patient Survey again this year to assess patients' experiences of their local NHS services. Survey specialist Ipsos MORI continues to run the survey on behalf of DH working with academics to develop the questionnaire, to cover more of the issues that concern patients.

The GP Patient Survey has been designed to give patients the opportunity to comment on their experience of their GP practice. The survey asks patients about a range of issues related to their local GP surgery and other local NHS services.  This includes questions about how easy or difficult it is for patients to make an appointment at their surgery, satisfaction with opening hours, and the quality of care received from their GP and practice nurses, amongst other things.

Replies to the survey will measure patient experience and will therefore help surgeries to understand where improvements are needed.

This survey is an opportunity for patients to have their say about how well their practice is doing at providing these services to patients. We hope that patients selected to take part in the survey will use this opportunity to feed back their opinions on these important issues. The more responses we receive, the more accurate a picture we will get on how practices are performing.

What is happening?

From July 2011, the GP Patient Survey questionnaires will be mailed out twice a year to around 1.4 million adults who are registered with a GP in England. In total around 2.8 million patients will be invited to take part over the course of the year. 

This is now the sixth year of the survey, and each year people’s views on services from their GP have proved really helpful. Even if you previously filled in a questionnaire, it is important to hear about your more recent experiences, especially as we are asking about more of the issues that concern patients.

Please see the Frequently Asked Questions section for more detailed information about various aspects of the survey.

Information about how the survey is being made accessible

This website is fully compatible with W3C standards to make it accessible for people with disabilities. This means that users can use Screen Reader software and it is possible to change the font size of the text.

There are additional measures in place to help people with completing the questionnaire. These include:

  • The Frequently Asked Questions section of this website has further detailed information about the questionnaire, and how to complete it.
  • Respondents who are sent a questionnaire will be able to complete the survey online via a unique link if they would prefer. To complete the Online Questionnaire you will need to enter your reference/username when prompted for the username, followed by your unique password. These are printed on the front page of the questionnaire. Please note however, that only one response per patient can be accepted.
  • The questionnaire is also available on this website in British Sign Language – please click here for further information.
  • Alternative versions of the questionnaire, such as large print and Braille are also available on request.
  • A freephone telephone helpline is available to answer any queries people may have regarding the survey and provide help with completing the questionnaire if necessary.  Please call 0808 238 5385 between 9am and 9pm weekdays, or Saturdays 10am to 5pm.
  • This helpline can also provide information to patients in 13 other languages (the 13 languages in which help is most commonly sought from NHS Direct).  Patients can complete the survey over the phone in one of these languages if required.