GP surgeries are being praised following the release of the Official Patient Survey Data by NHS England.
Despite increased workload pressures, 85.2% of patients rated their overall experience with their GP surgery as “good.”
Although this is a decrease of 1% on last year and 2.4% since 2012, many expected the figures to be significantly lower due to the increased workload of GPs.
General Practitioner Committee negotiator Dr Beth McCarron-Nash said she was surprised the decline had not been greater given the immense pressure GP practices face.
“Considering the immense workload and financial pressure GP practices and their staff are under, this very small decline is the result of the hard work practices are putting in.
With recent cuts and an extra 40m consultations’ general practice faces compared with five years ago, McCarron-Nash was “surprised the decline isn’t greater”.
For out-of-hours services, patient ratings rose slightly, with 67.9% saying their overall experience was good – up 0.4 percentage points since 2013, but down 2.9 percentage points from the 2012 score.
