Changes to the GP Patient Survey

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Contents
2026 survey

1. Questionnaire changes


The 2024 survey was the start of a new time series for GPPS. In both 2025 and 2026 changes to the questionnaire have been kept to a minimum to ensure that results can be compared across years.

However, as in every year, the questionnaire content has been reviewed to ensure it reflects the primary care context and priorities. While there have been no changes to the core paper questionnaire in 2026, there have been some changes to the questions that are only included online.

The core 2026 questionnaire is available on the website under Latest Survey Materials.

Online only questions

Online-only questions were included in GPPS for the first time in 2024, when the survey moved to an ‘online first’ mailing strategy.

Some of these questions have been included before:

  • Vaping behaviour (first added to the online survey in 2024).

  • Questions on the NHS Accessible Information Standard (first added in 2025).

  • Permission for recontact, allowing NHS England to find out more about the specific healthcare experiences of participants (first added in 2025). Note that in 2025, the survey also included a question asking permission for ONS to recontact carers. This was not included in 2026.

In addition, some new questions have been included in the 2026 survey:

These questions were developed by Ipsos and NHS England, cognitively tested with patients and reviewed by the Plain English Campaign.

Note that anyone requesting an accessible version of the paper questionnaire (large print or Braille) was also sent these questions. They were also asked of anyone taking part with Helpline support.

Following a review of these questions in 2025, NHS England have confirmed that in general the online only questions can be published as Official Statistics. However, where a question would benefit from further exploration (for example, 'first of type' for a national survey), it will be labelled as an 'official statistic in development', in line with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. For the 2026 survey, questions on the NHS Accessible Information Standard will continue to be labelled as ‘in development’ on the basis that they are still under review by NHS England.

Please share any feedback on the online-only questions with: GPPatientSurvey@ipsos.com.

The full set of online-only questions is available on the website under Latest survey materials. The new questions for 2026 are listed below.

Previous UK armed forces service

Q65 Have you previously served in the UK armed forces?

If you are a current serving member of the regular or reserve UK armed forces, please select ‘No’
  • No
  • Yes, I previously served in regular armed forces
  • Yes, I previously served in the reserve armed forces

 

Referral for specialist care

The next few questions are about your GP practice referring you to hospital for specialist care (for example, as a day patient, for specialist tests or for treatment).

Q70 In the last 12 months, has your GP practice referred you to hospital for specialist care (for example, as a day patient, for specialist tests or for treatment)?

  • Yes
  • No

Q71 When you were referred, were you offered a choice of hospital?

  • Yes
  • No
  • I can't remember

Please think about the last time your GP practice referred you to a hospital for specialist care.

Q72 What information was available to you to help you choose the hospital?

  • Journey times to get to the hospital
  • Current length of waiting lists
  • Quality of care
  • Other patients’ experiences
  • Something else
  • None of these
  • I don’t know or I can’t remember

Q73 Did you have all the information you needed to make an informed decision about which hospital you would prefer to go to?

  • Yes, definitely
  • Yes, to some extent
  • No, not at all
  • I don’t know or I can’t remember

Q74 How would you describe your experience of choosing the hospital for your specialist care?

  • Very good
  • Fairly good
  • Neither good nor poor
  • Fairly poor
  • Very poor

Q75 Before you were referred for specialist care, did you know about your right to choose the hospital?

  • Yes
  • No
  • I can't remember
 

2. Methodology 

Sampling strategy

There are no changes to the sampling approach for the 2026 survey.

Mailing strategy

Based on evidence from testing via a series of experiments in 2025, there have been some changes to the mailing strategy for the 2026 survey:

  • the final paper mailing was replaced with an SMS/e-letter or RCS for a proportion of the sample (50% of those under 70).

  • an email was added to the mailing strategy for anyone with a valid email address in the sample (around 70%).

Analysis of the experiment results showed that these changes could significantly reduce costs while safeguarding the inclusivity of the approach, without affecting trend data.

During 2026 fieldwork, Ipsos and NHS England have continued to trial experiments on a sub-sample of survey respondents. These experiments have tested contacting people in a variety of ways including:

  • via the NHS App, as first contact (replacing the initial letter) and as an additional contact.

  • sending all contacts via the NHS Notify service.

  • replacing the initial letter with a text message as first contact, and replacing e-letters, which are accessed via a text message, with a single text message.

More details of these experiments, and copies of the materials used for 2026 fieldwork, can be found in the 2026 Technical Annex.

3. Reporting 

Each year the reporting outputs are reviewed based on feedback from users and against the NHS Information Standards and other government guidance for publishing statistical publications.

In 2026 the following changes have been made to the reporting outputs:

  • Regional Excel report: a regional Excel data file has been published, to support users with regional level analysis.

  • ICS slidepacks: confidence intervals have been included in the PCN dashboard slides within the ICS slidepacks, to support users to understand where differences are statistically significant.

  • PCN dashboard: a new page has been added to the PCN dashboard to support practices and PCNs implement the Women’s Health Strategy. This page provides results filtered on those selecting ‘female’ at Q55 for the selected PCN and its practices.
     

4. Organisational changes 

Organisational changes reference changes to NHS organisational structures as well as detailing known changes in GP practice alignment to ICSs (as of April of each year). Published data is presented under the organisation name that was current at the end of fieldwork, April 2026.

Practice level ICS changes

This year, the following practices (that are represented in the 2026 survey) moved between ICBs following the closure of Frimley ICB (QNQ):

  • J82015, J82049, J82066, J82067, J82099, J82110, J82120, J82125, J82142, J82178, J82181, J82198, J82628 and J82630 moved from QNQ (Frimley ICB) to QRL (Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICB);

  • H81047, K81001, K81010, K81015, K81018, K81019, K81020, K81021, K81024, K81028, K81030, K81034, K81036, K81042, K81043, K81046, K81060, K81066, K81068, K81074, K81075, K81076, K81082, K81083, K81084, K81085, K81086, K81087, K81094, K81097, K81607, K81608, K81610, K81616, K81630, K81645, K81655, K81656, K81657, Y00265 and Y00437 moved from QNQ (Frimley ICB) to S0E4D (Thames Valley ICB);

  • H81013, H81027, H81039, H81040, H81069, H81075, H81082, H81088, H81110, H81130 and H81615 moved from QNQ (Frimley ICB) to S9B9J (Surrey and Sussex ICB).

GP practice information is taken from the NHS England Organisation Data Service “epraccur” reference file. In cases where practices have closed before the implementation of higher geography changes, the file can map practices to organisations (e.g. regions and ICSs) that no longer exist. Where this is the case, the ICS and region for these practices is updated to reflect the current NHS commissioning structures, as of April in the relevant survey year.

ICB level changes

As part of Phase 1 of the ICB mergers and new footprints that came into effect on 1 April 2026, six new ICBs were established across England through the abolition of 12 existing ICBs, and a change in boundary for an existing ICB. This includes the following changes:

  • S1Y5D (Central East ICB) has been created by the merger of QHG (Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB) and part of QM7 (Hertfordshire and West Essex);

  • D7T5G (Essex ICB) has been created by the merger of QUE (Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB), QH8 (Mid and South Essex ICB), part of QM7 (Hertfordshire and West Essex) and QJG (Suffolk and North East Essex ICB);

  • T6Y0W (Norfolk and Suffolk ICB) has been created by the merger of QJG (Suffolk and North East Essex ICB) and QMM (Norfolk and Waveney ICB);

  • Z9B2Z (West and North London ICB) has been created by the merger of QMJ (North Central London ICB) and QRV (North West London);

  • S0E4D (Thames Valley ICB) has been created by the merger of QU9 (Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB) and part of QNQ (Frimley ICB) based on LSOA;

  • S9B9J (Surrey and Sussex ICB) has been created by thea merger of QXU (Surrey Heartlands ICB), QNX (Sussex ICB), and part of QNQ (Frimley ICB) based on LSOA;

  • QRL (Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICB) has had a change in boundary, to include part of QNQ (Frimley ICB) based on LSOA.
     

Specific boundary changes for the ICBs have been reflected in the ‘Practice level ICS changes’ above and as outlined by NHS England on the following page ‘ICB mergers 2026 change summary’ .