Patient satisfaction with GP services in England has collapsed, research finds
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/22/patient-satisfaction-gp-services-england-research
by peakedtooearly
Patient satisfaction with GP services in England has collapsed, research finds
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/22/patient-satisfaction-gp-services-england-research
by peakedtooearly
42 comments
The mad panic at 8:00 am to attempt to get an appointment will do it.
So shocked that people aren’t satisfied with a service that only fobs off and refers to other places rather than actually helping.
There are “symptoms” – those things reported by the patient. And there are “signs”- medical observations made by clinical staff.
I fail to see how signs can be spotted anywhere near as effectively with tele appointments. GP surgeries are supposed to be the first point of screening for serious disease. It’s no wonder some health outcomes including cancer are getting worse.
I’m shocked, who’d have thought that worried people made to jump through hoops and fight for a 5 minute appointment would be unhappy with the service. Maybe if GP surgeries actually made it easier for people that work to see the GP, with opening hours outside 9-6 mon-fri it would stop people attending Aand E out of desperation.
There are two problems compared to 30 years ago:
1) It is far, far harder to get an ad hoc appointment. The mad scramble and stress at 8am to try and get some sort of appointment is stressful and difficult. And if it’s really difficult to get an appointment you automatically expect more from that appointment.
2) patients now have far more information available to them before and after going to a GP. They can easily research their own symptoms. So they have expectations before they arrive and can double check diagnoses after an appointment. It’s exposed the fact that 10 minute general appointments with a patient that may not give a full and accurate picture just aren’t that good or clinically accurate.
One way to slow demand is to make the service hard to access.
I have to call at 8am for an appointment. If I get through, I have to be available all day for a potential appointment call, if I miss ( because I am at work, school run etc) then I have to start over. If I take the call I have to basically take any appointment ( which is fine, but I have a job…so not always possible).
I wonder how many people have a lump they aren’t getting seen because the service is poor? There are going to be consequences.
My GP surgery works if you’re not in work, retired or stay at home for whatever reason.
i wonder if someone spend 10 years defunding the NhS
15 years of underfunding will have that effect. Let’s put most of the blame on the party that did the most damage though please.
Could it have anything to do with the rise of accurx and forcing patients to fill in a questionnaire about their problem while providing no real guarantee a doctor will review it, no acknowledgement it’s been seen by a human and no guarantee they will be seen.
Patients may not accurately communicate on their form, they may consider a symptom to be unrelated or insignificant and end up referred to a pharmacy who will then inform them they need to see a GP.
I understand surge in demand with little to no increase in funding or an expectation to make cost savings plays a large part in this but people don’t trust a computer to triage their problem and accurately determine the correct course of action.
Considering that each time you get fobbed off with an appointment with a nurse practioner instead of an actual doctor then I am not surprised at all.
The dumb thing is that none of the alternatives to face to face appointments actually save the GPs time. A phone or video call might be quicker for the patient as they don’t have to travel but it’s exactly the same 10 minutes for the GP. And the extra bureaucracy and systems layered on to prevent you from seeing a GP unless you’re incredibly persistent just mean they have to employ more staff and have higher costs.
Is that any surprise? You have to ring up at 8am to be told all appointments are gone but then ring up 111 and magically they’re available.
I asked to book any appointment for a few days time and was told “we can’t do that”. So they could do it back before 2010 when the appointments were on paper but can’t do it now everything is online?
Go into the surgery and it’s dead, no one around. So where are all the appointments going?
Receptionists then being incredibly rude also doesn’t help
Plus, they’re only available when you’re at work unless you practically offer to sacrifice your first born and then maybe they’ll give you an out of hours appointment which is 30 miles away
Weirdly, my GP surgery is the opposite of what I see complained about on reddit. No less terrible, mind you, but the opposite. Instead of a mad dash at 8 AM or whatever, you can always get an appointment. The problem? Well, I recently booked the nearest appointment available – it’s in three weeks.
It was great until a couple of years ago when it got bought out/merged with some bigger conglomerate that owns various GP surgeries. I hear this is the reason vets are so shit and overpriced now as well. Ah, the efficiency of capitalism!
GPS should work weekends to accommodate the working people who actually pay taxes. It’s hard to do the 8 am scramble while trying to get to work. They won’t like it but I doubt they would quit, it’s not like they can nip down Aldi and demand £100k. It should also be a condition of a visa that you take out private medical insurance. I think it’s no coincidence the availability of appointments has decreased around the same time as net migration has increased.
Feels the same way in Scotland. NHS is amazing in an emergency but for non emergency things seems like it keeps getting worse and worse. And fobbing people off by throwing painkillers at them rather than finding the problem just causes them to get worse in the long run. For a while now I’ve personally been tempted to go private with something like Bupa for non-A&E things, but the cost is high for me and for many in no way a financial option.
GP surgeries are privately owned by the GP partners and funded via the ‘number of patients’ model, meaning they’re not incentivised to actually see patients, they get paid anyway – unless it’s to give patients a vaccine (as they’re paid very well by the NHS for this service).
Their mortgages and rents are also paid by the taxpayer, but that doesn’t stop them subletting their premises to other private healthcare companies, and then there’s the pot of NHS money to pay for advanced nurse practitioners etc in their surgeries, so even their wages don’t come out of the GP partners profits.
Then there’s the supersize’ surgeries owned by shareholders and hedge funders from overseas, taking over smaller practices. Economies of scale thrive in these set ups. Not for the patient though. Salaried GPs are way too costly for the business and affect the bottom line. Be lucky to get an apt with a GP for weeks. The care navigator taking that 8am call meanwhile is paid minimum wage.
Where there’s health there’s wealth .
NHS gave me health anxiety. Not a nice way to wake up in the morning to see an appointment booked with the GP in my NHS app while you are awaiting your xray results..but with no notes and no indication of why the appointment is booked. Had to call them non stop to get them tell me, they dont find any notes either. Finally after 2 weeks.of suffering not knowing what is going on and telling them I am spiralling and going to collapse, they arrange a phone appointment with another GP who looked at MY report to tell me, there is slight congestion. Luckily I flew to India a few weeks after. Paid 70 quid to do a high res CT, a specialist consultation and few other tests to get a clean bill of health. Now I suffer from severe health anxiety and not sure how to get rid of it anymore. Thanks NHS!!
I assume I’m one of a minority but my experience is the polar opposite.
My doctor’s is part of a conglomerate of 6surgeries who move appointments between them. There is a form to fill out online before 10am then they call/text you to arrange an appointment often same day, but other days can be picked.
I don’t know if that is a relatively unique system but it works well. The area I’m in is a Tory stronghold so may have had extra funding over the years
The only people to answer this survey had to ring in at 8am and wait in a queue in the hope of getting a spot.
So people who are sick and worried DON’T appreciate spending 30 minutes trying to get an appointment only to be told there are none left day after day? Fucking shocking.
Looking at many of the comments here the problem yet again it is a lack of any critical thinking by the British Public that seems to be the problem.
Some of the comments are utterly ridiculous, others venture into conspiracy theories and some are just plain dumb (Daily Mail and Scum readers).
Over the past decade whenever the British Public is asked anything it just shows how badly the education system has let down people.
I guess that is what happens when you lessons stop being about learning and are just exercises in remembering facts.
Good to see timely news. No one has been complaining about GP services for years…
On the whole I can’t really complain about the service they provide, but that’s mostly because I can never get an appointment to actually give a first hand account of it.
The main thing is my dogs can get in the vets same day so that’s good.
Who’d have thought underfunding and reducing availability would cause reduced satisfaction?
Been a year of trying to get a specialist to see me for a diagnosed autoimmune disease that I have. Took me 6 different doctors all prescribing me different medicines when I’ve had a nasal infection, for one to finally decide to swab it and find out exactly what bacteria it is. It’s actually ridiculous now.
Wonder why. Playing the hunger games to get an appointment is good for no one..
Compared to how it was a few years ago is, where you could ring up and book for in a few days.. it at least gives you peace of mind during a time when your possibly scared as it is. Or even just walk in… who remembers walk in appointments.
This is not to mention the amount of extra work this system generates for call staff, instead of 1 call… it will generate multiple calls because you call back. This means more work for everyone, more stress.
It’s not a coincidence they’ve increased call staff… that money should be going to a GP or 2
You know what will help? Importing 5 million more people into the system that never paid a dime for it. Let’s go! Great Britain! Am I right 👍
More patients, fewer GPs, no wonder people are unhappy with the service.
>They are more satisfied with practices that offer more in-person sessions, and less satisfied with those relying more on telephone and remote consultations, even though those free GPs up to see more patients.
There’s something almost comical about them phrasing less face-to-face appointments meaning they get to see more patients.
I’d say 9/10 of my telephone appointments end up lasting way less time because they don’t take what you’re saying seriously, and they completely miss most of the problems.
I went to our local walk-in centre yesterday as I’ve had some really harsh pain in my right leg, started in my glute and if I pressed behind my knee I could feel pain in my glute.
Yesterday I could barely walk, just had to limp around. Spent an hour waiting to be seen, which is fine, but the GP that saw me took all of about two minutes to say “ahhh yeah yeah it’s sciatica, here’s a prescription for some pain meds and just try and do these exercises on the NHS website”.
Naproxen is only helping a bit and I’m still pretty heavily limping around today. Browsed to the NHS page when I arrived home yesterday and yes there are exercise videos to do for sciatica, but actually there are four different videos to help the various different causes of sciatica.
So maybe it’s sciatica, but I doubt I’m going to know whether it’s a pinged nerve, slipped disc or piriformis muscle issue, because the GP seemed keen to get me in and out as quickly as humanly possible.
I have bad chest pains that have been slowly getting worse. Everytime I phone the doctors I am on hold for 40 mins only to be told there are no more appointment slots.
I have tried booking an appointment most days this year. I work from 6am so every time I try to ring the doctors I have to take time out of work. I have broken down in the GPS reception room begging for an appointment a couple of months ago.
I have reached a point now where I have given up. I’m fully expect whatever is wrong with me will continue to get worse and there’s nothing I can do about it. The nhs is broken.
If only we could have predicted that doing more with less isn’t sustainable. 🤔
I have really long period sometimes due to my PCOS and got a letter a couple of weeks ago to book my smear test. I rang up to book it which was done without problems but let them know I was currently on day 40 of a period with no sign of letting up so I needed some norethisterone prescribed with enough time for the medication to work before coming in for my smear. A couple of days later I got a text asking me to call up and book a routine appointment to discuss my period issues in order to get the prescription, I rang up immediately and was told there was an appointment available a week before my smear (today as it happens) but the system wouldn’t allow her to book said appointment till the next day which was really frustrating because why am I being asked to call to book an appointment that can’t be booked right then? I called the next day and the only available appointment left was 4 days before my test is due which they won’t be able to do if the medication doesn’t work to stop my bleeding. Some of the processes at my GP are just difficult for no reason.
Oh goodie another bash the shit out of GP’s post.
Grab the popcorn peeps buckle up and have every anecdotal and made up thing right here to digest.
Just remember to blame them for everything and not that they had the shit stripped out of their service.
One of the issues is you never know whether you are actually seeing a doctor or being fobbed off with a practitioner until you get there.
I logged in last week to Patches at 7am to make an appointment, nope need to wait till 8am when the office is open… for an online thing…. OK, fine. Ended up calling and still didn’t get an appointment.
Today went to make an appointment at 8am on Patches, sorry there are currently no appointments please try again tomorrow at 7am. SEVEN AM. Are you fucking joking.
I’ve been a long-term supporter of the NHS with family who work for it, but it is completely indefensible in its current state. I’ve needed the NHS twice in the past 3 years, one for a potential cancer scare which took 6 months to get a scan, in addition to my sister having to help me get seen. Luckily all clear, but it was a particularly anxiety-inducing wait, and could have had pretty bad implications if I did have something wrong with me.
The second is more recent, requiring a very minor outpatient procedure (in and out within 1 hour), but I was told to expect a 6-9 month minimum wait time for this on the NHS. I explained the issue is on my face/eyes, so is affecting my vision, ability to exercise and take good care of myself, in addition to also significantly affecting my mental health and confidence, as its a bit unsightly. They wouldn’t see me in person, and the practitioner I dealt with was SO rude, telling me it’d be 6 months minimum and I should be grateful for the NHS, as my situation would be much worse if I was in America. When I stressed my mental health issues, she said “Well go private if it bothers you that much”. The head of the practice called me back and apologised, confirming that the practitioner had been given a formal disciplinary. I ended up giving up and am paying £500 to have this resolved privately, as the NHS was completely useless.
It is an utter disgrace it’s got to this point, and I constantly have to help elder/less tech savvy relatives get an appointment. I’m very lucky I can afford to go private for this, but the NHS simply do not care anymore. I’m not sure it’s even salvageable at this stage.
Same in Wales, I went to my GP after having several heart attack symptoms (111 weren’t bothered cause of my age) and they said ‘you’re too young for a heart attack’. Okay? I still had the symptoms, so what then? They refused to test for heart enzymes and instead they tested for B12, folic acid and thyroid problems (which all came back fine). After my blood tests all came back okay, they didn’t do anything further, I had to push for another appointment with a different doctor.
Thankfully, I found one that listened and she thinks its heart related. She got an ecg booked and she said to get to A&E if it happened again (it did).
£25/appointment
£10 if you’re a child or require repeat visits for a single ailment.
Bosh, GPs have time, money and capacity to deal with actual ill people.
In a world where we charge for prescriptions I see no issue charging for the appointments that give out those prescriptions.
Well that’s still with Tory practises implemented. Labour are changing that.
in our local practice we can ALWAYS get a same day face to face appointment because the receptionists are all immigrants and like us having to pay the annual £1000k NHS surcharge – knowing this they always give us preferential treatment and bump us to the front of the queue for appointments. I believe it is like this in many GP surgeries.
My partner is a receptionist at GP surgery in England. They have around 9000 patients and about 4-5 permanent GP’s and a couple of locums. The catchment area straddles a middle class neighbourhood and an a council estate. There is a small minority of the residents of the council estate are generally the ones who abuse the staff and system.
The GP’s are all doing part time hours including the practice partners. None have any idea how to manage the business. On top of the part time hours there is frequent sickness absence with both the GP’s and nurses (occupational hazard). The absences are nearly daily occurrence that it should in my opinion be factored in as a contingency as we all are told about patient missed appointments but the absences really do have a knock on effect to the number of appointments given on any one day. Conveniently this isn’t public knowledge for some reason??…..
One day a GP was the only one who turned up selfishly stated as they had so much admin to do wiped off all their open appointments regardless of the queue of patients. It took the Practice Manager to step up and say come on you are the only Dr in today to force the GP who still protested to see patients.
When a GP is turning away patients like that something is fundamentally wrong. Patients in any circumstances should be the priority but it appears some medical professionals disagree for what ever the root cause of that is?
The practice management is not without its problems either. One is a bully, the partners are impotent to deal with any staff grievances and the bullying has led to many medical team who were very good to leave. It appears as long as the GP Partners do not actually have to deal with any hands on management of their business the better. They do literally turn a blind eye.
The busiest days of the week at Monday’s and Friday’s. Most patients complaints and abuse happen on those days. But the reception team are having to cope understaffed and overworked and neither the practice manager nor the deputy are rota’d in on those days. Surely it the common sense thing is to make sure you are there on those days ensuring the best patient care and to support the very team you are in charge of.
The reception team get thrown under the bus everyday by both management and the medical professionals yet they are the ones who are doing the bulk of communication with the patients. No wonder they have this unhelpful stereotype as they are the ones who are actually dealing with the frustrations of patients and they are just as frustrated. In this one surgery out of however many in the country the Partner GP’s and the management are a big part of the problem. How many more are run like this I wonder?
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