General Information

Since April 2009 the GP Patient Survey has been running as a quarterly survey. This Department of Health survey, run by survey specialist Ipsos MORI will continue to assess patients’ experiences of local NHS services.   Instead of an annual survey in January each year, the survey is now sent to a sample of patients from each GP practice every quarter.   Different coloured questionnaires are being sent out each quarter to different patients registered with a GP. The blue-coloured questionnaire, which was mailed out in early January 2010 is currently open for those selected to take part.

Please note, Ipsos MORI cannot accept any more purple-coloured questionnaires which were mailed out in October 2009. 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 and this year has worked with academics to develop a new questionnaire, covering more of the issues that concern patients.

The GP Patient Survey is part of the Government’s commitment to make the NHS more responsive to patients’ needs. The survey asks patients about a range of issues, such as how easy or difficult it is for patients to make an appointment at their surgery, satisfaction with opening hours, the quality of care received from their GP and practice nurses, amongst other things.

The Department of Health has set some standards for how easy it should be for people to book an appointment with their doctor. The survey measures how well GP surgeries are meeting these standards and can help surgeries and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) 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 April 2009, the GP Patient Survey is running more frequently, with questionnaires being mailed out quarterly to around 1.4 million adults who are registered with a GP in England. The blue-coloured questionnaire, which was mailed out in early January 2009, is currently open for those selected to take part.  Reminders for this quarter will be sent in February and March 2010 to people who have not returned the questionnaire. In total around 5.7 million patients will be invited to take part over the course of the year.

This is now the fourth 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.

The results of the survey will be used to allow PCTs to reward practices that are delivering a high standard of access to their patients, as well giving practices information about how they are doing. The results will also help other patients when they need to decide which practice to register with.

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:

• A freephone telephone helpline to answer any queries people may have regarding the survey and provide help with completing the questionnaire if necessary
• 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.
• The Frequently Asked Questions section of this website has further detailed information about the questionnaire, and how to complete it. This information is also available in 13 other languages.
• Respondents who are sent a questionnaire will be able to complete the survey online via a unique link if they would prefer, including in 13 languages other than English. Please note that only one questionnaire per person can be accepted.
• To complete the Online Questionnaire you will need to enter your reference/username when prompted for the username, followed by your unique password. The reference/username and password 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.

Example of the questionnaire