General Practice Patient Survey (GPPS)

Description

The GP Patient Survey (GPPS) is an England-wide annual survey which has been running every year since 2007. It is sent to approximately 2.2 million people and asks about experiences of local primary care services including dentistry. Currently, the survey is ‘mixed mode’ and uses paper invitations and questionnaires with the option of completing the survey online (in the form of a link provided on a letter that individuals can type into their device and via SMS reminder messages).The survey currently provides data at national, Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and GP practice levels. It is used to understand performance at GP practice level as well as identifying emerging and ongoing national trends which feed into policy making. The GPPS is extensively used by NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSEI), the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Care Quality Commission (CQC). Lot 1: The survey not only provides data on key priorities such as access to general practice, but also provides insight about a wide range of other areas including health inequalities at a population level, a key focus of the NHS Long Term plan. The survey is also a key asset at local level, providing robust and comparable insight to local organisations and health systems about the performance of general practice.Methodology• That the survey will continue to be run on a yearly basis at GP practice level.• That the survey’s implementation will continue to be mixed mode – paper based and online. This is to minimise selection bias and ensure a key part of the population are not excluded. In addition, experiments in this area have found a drop-in response rate with increased online completion, which impacts on the ability to report robustly at GP Practice level.• The drive to increase online uptake will continue.Content• That the main focus of the survey will continue to be general practice but that the survey content reflects changing primary care contexts and policy priorities.Sampling• That the survey sampling criteria remains the same – those registered with a GP practice for at least six months, aged 16 and over.• That the survey sample will continue to be drawn from the Personal Demographic Service (PDS). Please note mobile telephone numbers and emails do not cover everyone in the sample (email approx. 25% and mobile telephone number 75%).• That the survey will continue to produce weighted data that are representative and comparable at GP practice level and that are also nationally representative.Data production• That the survey would be run to the existing timings including survey fieldwork January until early April and publication in July the same year.• That there would be the opportunity to report the survey based on other geographies such as STP and PCN.• The survey will require a certain sample size and/or confidence interval width at practice level which is defined in the ITT.