Best GP practices by patient survey (GPPS)

The GP Patient Survey (GPPS) is a large national survey of patients in England. It collects feedback about people’s experiences of GP services such as access, appointments, communication and overall experience.

GPPS is an official survey programme for patient experience in primary care. The data is published publicly so patients can compare experiences across GP practices and areas.

Many GPPS results are reported as the percentage of respondents who gave a positive answer for a question or topic. A higher percentage generally indicates a better patient-reported experience for that measure.

Common measures include overall experience, helpfulness of reception/staff, making an appointment, confidence and trust, involvement in decisions, and support for long-term conditions. Availability can vary by survey year.

GPPS measures patient experience rather than clinical outcomes. It can be useful for understanding how patients feel about access and communication, but it is not the same as clinical effectiveness or safety indicators.

A practice may be missing results if survey data is not available for that period, the practice code could not be matched, or if a particular measure does not exist in that survey release.

Results can change due to real service improvements, staffing and access changes, policy changes, or differences in who responded. Survey results are a snapshot of feedback for a given publication period.

Response rate is the proportion of sent surveys that were returned. Higher response rates can give more confidence that the results reflect a broader range of patient experiences.