General practice delivered a record 380 million appointments last year, which is 7 million more than the year before, says NHS England.
Data published today shows that GP teams carried out 383.3 million appointments in the last 12 months, compared to 375.7 million in the previous year.
Figures for June 2025 also show practices and PCNs delivered 31.4 million appointments, which is a record for June and nearly a third more than the same period pre-pandemic – a 31.9% increase.
The data comes after ONS’ experiences of NHS healthcare services in England found there was a rise in the number of people rating their overall GP experience as ‘good’ – 73% compared with 67% last year. It also revealed that 72% of people found it easy to contact their GP practice – up from 60% last September.
Health Minister, Ashley Dalton, attributed the delivery of the additional appointments to ‘cutting red tape, increasing capacity, and helping GPs spend less time filling out paperwork’.
She added: ‘We are on a mission to rebuild our health service and give people better access to care when they need it.’
Earlier this month, the latest NHS GP Patient Survey also found patient satisfaction in their GP practice had risen over the past year, with three quarters (75.4%) of patients saying they had a ‘good’ overall experience with their GP practice.
This is up from 73.9% in last year’s survey and continues a steady increase following a six-year low in reported satisfaction in the 2023 report.
However, in April, the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey, published by Nuffield Trust and The King’s Fund, revealed a decline in public satisfaction with GP services – dropping from 34% in 2023 to 31% in 2024.
Access to general practice was highlighted as a key driver of unhappiness in the survey.
Responding to today’s figures, Amanda Doyle, NHS England national director for primary care and community services, said that general practice teams have been ‘working exceptionally hard to boost access and turn our services around’.
‘While services improve and patient satisfaction has started to rise, we know more needs to be done to improve access, which is why we remain committed to working with the government on delivering the 10-year plan to boost access and improve primary care services for patients,’ she said.
