The 2025 GP Patient Survey results, which includes information on patient experience of general practice, NHS dentistry and community pharmacy, have been published.
The results show a greater proportion of our GP practices in Humber and North Yorkshire are scoring significantly above average than in any other integrated care system (ICS) in the country.
The 2025 feedback report also reveals improvement in patients’ experience in categories across the board, with more people in our area rating their overall experience of their GP practices as ‘good’ this year compared to last – 77% compared to 75% – with positive feedback for pharmacy and dental services too.
In categories relating to patients’ perception of care, our ICS generally scored either above or in line with national averages, and there have been noticeable improvements in patients’ experience when contacting their GP practice by phone, websites and through the NHS App.
Dr Nigel Wells, NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) Executive Director of Clinical and Professional, said: “This year’s results are hugely encouraging and are a testament to the incredibly hard work of our GP practice teams – supported by ICB colleagues – and the steps that have been taken to modernise practices, improve digital telephony and triage systems, and boost the numbers of nursing and support roles.
“In the last 12 months, through initiatives like Pharmacy First, we have also worked hard to support our community pharmacies and recognise the increasingly important role they play in people’s health.
“We have also taken big steps to stabilise NHS dentistry during a difficult time for the profession and while it’s pleasing that seven in 10 people have had a positive experience of NHS dental services, we know there is still work to do to support recruitment and retention of NHS dentists and improve access.”
Jason Stamp, Acting Chair of NHS Humber and North Yorkshire ICB added: “When we ran our four-week We Need to Talk public engagement exercise last year, we heard loud and clear from people that better access to a GP and reducing the waiting times for people to receive the advice, care or treatment they need were top priorities.
“In the last 12 months we have worked hard to support practices in making improvements that help people get the help they need as quickly as possible. In 2024-25 there were well over 11 million GP practice appointments in Humber and North Yorkshire and almost half of those were same-day or next-day appointments, and 65% were in-person.
“While the results of this year’s GP Patient Survey are overall very positive, we also acknowledge that some people will remain frustrated, and we need to continue to work hard with our partners to ensure Primary Care has all the tools at its disposal to play that crucial part in our vision to improve health outcomes for all of our communities.”
About the GP Patient Survey
The GP Patient Survey (GPPS) is an England-wide survey, providing data about patients’ experiences of their GP practices. This year’s survey was sent to 2.7 million patients aged 16 or over registered with a GP practice in England. Just over 700,000 responses were received giving information about 685,000 appointments.
In our integrated care system, 59,328 questionnaires were sent out, and 19,172 were returned completed. This represents a response rate of 32%, slightly lower than in 2024.
- Our ICS generally scored either above or in line with national averages in categories relating to patients’ perceptions of care. 87% said the healthcare professional was good at listening. 87% said they were treated with care and concern. 75% said the healthcare professional was good at considering their mental wellbeing. 92% felt the healthcare professional had all the information they needed. 93% had trust and confidence in the healthcare professional they spoke to. 91% said they were involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their care and treatment, and 90% said their needs were met.
- More people (58%) described their experience of NHS services when their practice is closed, as good, compared to last year (56%).
- This year, only a third of patients said it ‘it wasn’t easy’ to contact their GP practice by phone, compared to almost a half two years ago.
- More than two thirds of people in Humber and North Yorkshire (69%) said the wait for an available appointment ‘was about right’, with less than a third saying it ‘took too long’ – better than the national average.
- More than half of patients in our area said it was easy to contact their practice on the NHS App (54%) or their website (57%), significantly better than the national averages and data from last year.
- Nearly half of patients (48%) said they ordered repeat prescriptions online, compared to 43% nationally; 40% of people booked appointments online, 25% filled in an online form, 25% accessed medical records, and 29% found out test results (an improvement on 2024 against all metrics). More than one in five people (21%) used an online method (practice website or NHS App) to get in touch with their GP practice, when they last tried to contact them.
- 71% of patients in Humber and North Yorkshire (slightly higher than last year) said they had received enough support to help them manage conditions or illnesses.
- 87% of people said their experience of using pharmacy services was good, broadly on par with national feedback.
- More than two thirds of people from Humber and North Yorkshire who responded to the survey (69%) said their experience of NHS dental services was good – slightly more than the 2024 figures and broadly in line with the national average.