GP National Survey – have you received one?
Around 3 million people, aged 16 and over, who are registered with a GP practice in England will receive an invitation to take part in Europe’s biggest patient experience survey in early January. The answers we get help the NHS to improve local health services for people like you and your family. It is important that we hear about your experiences even if you haven’t visited your GP practice recently, or if you have filled in a questionnaire before.
The initial invitations go out by letter to a random selection of people who have been registered with their GP practice for at least 6 months. The survey team at NHS England will follow this up with text message and email reminders (where a mobile number or email is available) to encourage as high a response rate as possible.
If you receive a survey invitation, please do take the time to take part. It provides vital information to the NHS to identify what’s working well and what can be improved. It helps to identify inequalities in experience too, as the results can be analysed across different protected characteristics.
Visit https://gp-patient.co.uk/ for more information
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Why is this survey happening?
The GP Patient Survey is designed to give patients the opportunity to feed back about their experiences of their GP practice and other local NHS services.
The survey asks about your experiences of your local GP practice and other local NHS services and includes questions about your general health. It includes questions about a range of topics, such as how easy or difficult it is to contact your practice, the quality of care received from healthcare professionals, and experience of NHS services when your GP practice is closed. The survey also includes questions about experiences of NHS dental and pharmacy services.
The answers we get help the NHS to improve local health services for people like you and your family. It is important that we hear about your experiences even if you haven’t visited your GP practice in a long time, or if you have filled in a questionnaire before.
Q. When is the survey sent out?
The survey is sent out every year in January.
Q. Why was I invited to take part?
You have been invited to take part because you were randomly selected from all adult patients registered with a GP in England. Around 3 million patients aged over 16 registered with a GP in England have been selected to receive the GP Patient Survey this year.
Q. Why haven’t I been invited to take part in the survey? How can I take part?
The survey is sent to a random selection of people who are registered with a GP in England. To ensure the survey is valid, Ipsos cannot invite people who have not already been selected at random to take part in the survey.
The survey is sent to a random selection of people who are registered with a GP in England. To ensure the survey is valid, Ipsos cannot invite people who have not already been selected at random to take part in the survey.
Q. How did you get my contact details?
Ipsos is sending you this questionnaire on behalf of NHS England. Names were chosen at random from the NHS list of patients registered with a GP. NHS England has shared a limited amount of your personal data so that Ipsos can invite you to take part in this research. This data includes:
• Your name and address
• GP practice code and NHS number
• Gender and month/year of birth
• Mobile telephone number and email address (if available)
Ipsos will keep your data confidential and will only use your contact details to invite you to take part in the survey. Once the survey is finished, Ipsos will securely destroy your contact details, unless you agreed to being re-contacted about future research, in which case Ipsos will securely hold onto your contact details for 24 months. Ipsos has no information about your health.
Q. Are National Data Opt-outs applied to this survey?
No.
The Department of Health and Social Care has confirmed that the National Data Opt-out only applies when confidential patient information is being used for purposes other than care for the individual. Confidential patient information includes clinical data about the individual (such as any medical conditions, prescriptions or care received), and any information about the individual that has been accessed via the person’s medical record. The GP Patient Survey uses demographic data and contact details drawn from the patient registration record of GP practices to select and contact people to be surveyed. This personal data is not classified as confidential patient information as no clinical information is used or accessed. As such, the National Data Opt-out does not apply to the GP Patient Survey.
Q. What is your legal basis for processing my personal data?
NHS England is carrying out this research to help the NHS improve GP practices and other local NHS services. This will help them better meet local needs in response to patient responses. They have a legal duty (under section 13Q of the NHS Act 2006) to involve the public in the commissioning of services for NHS patients.
NHS England is the data controller for the processing of personal data for the GP Patient Survey, which means that they are responsible for making sure that the processing complies with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
NHS England’s basis for lawful processing for the GP Patient Survey is Article 6(1) (e) - “processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller”. Processing special category personal data (such as data about health, racial or ethnic origin or sexual orientation) must meet an additional condition, Article 9(2)(h) “processing is necessary for the purposes of preventive or occupational medicine, for the assessment of the working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services”. This means that NHS England can use the personal data they hold about you for research with appropriate safeguards in place. Ipsos is the data processor acting on instructions of NHS England to deliver the survey.
You can access NHS England’s Privacy Notice at https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/privacy/privacy-notice/.
Taking part in the survey is voluntary. However, if you do not want to take part, please email GPPatientSurvey@ipsos.com. In the email, please include your survey code (located at the top of the letter or on the front of the questionnaire) and indicate that you wish to opt out.