Survey finds only 67 per cent of patients across Bedfordshire satisfied with GP service
A survey has found that only 67 per cent of patients across Bedfordshire and Luton were satisfied with the service provided to be them by their GP.
The GP Patient Survey, which was carried out by Ipsos for NHS England in February, heard from 9,573 respondents across the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Service area on their overall experience with their GP.
Of those that replied, 67 per cent said they had a good overall experience with GP services, with 17 per cent reporting a poor experience.
In comparison, 66 per cent of respondents said they had a good overall experience in the previous year's equivalent survey.
Across England, 75 per cent of the 702,000 respondents had a good experience at their practice, up slightly from 74 per cent the previous year.
The survey also asked about patients experience in contacting their doctor, with 60 per cent of respondents across the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board area saying they had a good experience.
This was a slight increase on the previous year, when 57 per cent reported a good experience.
Nationally, the survey found 70 per cent of respondents had a good overall experience when contacting their doctor, up from 67 per cent in 2024.
The survey also asked patients about their experiences with NHS dentists and pharmacies in Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes.
Some 69% said they had a good overall experience with dentists, while 85 per cent said they had a good experience with pharmacies.
Louise Ansari, chief executive at Healthwatch England, said of the findings: "Primary care delivers 90 per cent of the interactions people have with the National Health Service (NHS).
"With public satisfaction in the NHS declining, improvements to how people access care from their GP, pharmacy, dentistry, and other primary care teams is therefore vital.
"It's promising that this year's findings show modest increases in people's overall experiences of GP, including an increase in the number of people given a choice of time, day or location for their most recent appointment, which we know from previous years' results directly links to improvements in overall experience.
"However, our recent research shows there is a gap between the choices people want and the ones they get."
Dr Amanda Doyle, NHS England's national director for primary care and community services responded: "The results reflect patients now being able to use the NHS App for more services, better phone systems to easily book an appointment, and the hard work of our general practice teams - but there is still more to do to improve patients' satisfaction and experience.
"We will introduce further improvements including training more GPs and increasing the number of dentists, building online advice into the NHS App, establishing neighbourhood health centres in every community, and making it even easier to see your general practice team when you need to instead of having to turn to A&E."