The 20 worst Birmingham GP surgeries for booking an appointment - according to GP Patient Survey 2023

Public satisfaction with the process of booking a GP appointment in England has hit a new low, according to an official NHS survey.

More than a quarter of people rated their experience of booking an appointment as poor, the highest proportion in six years. The government said it was investing in GP services “to tackle the 8am rush” and improve patient experience.

The latest annual GP Patient Survey, produced by Ipsos on behalf of NHS England, surveyed 760,000 people between January and April 2023. It asked what they thought about their local GP surgery, including their experiences of booking an appointment.

The results are published to GP practice level.

When patients were asked, ‘How would you describe your experience of making an appointment?’, more than a quarter (27.7%) described it as poor – the highest since current records began in 2018 and a 1.8 percentage point rise on the previous year’s figures when 25.9% described their experience as poor.

More than half (54.4%) of the respondents said their overall experience was ‘good’, but this is a 1.8 percentage point drop on the previous year’s figures and again the lowest in six years. A further 17.9% said their overall experience of booking an appointment was ‘neither good nor poor’.

Patient satisfaction peaked at 70.6% in 2021, a result likely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Patients were able to say whether their practice was ‘very good’ or ‘fairly good’ or ‘very poor’ or ‘fairly poor’. For the purpose of this analysis the ‘good’ and ‘fairly good’ responses have been combined, as have the ‘very poor’ and ‘fairly poor’ responses.

We’ve looked at the data to reveal the worst GP surgeries in Birmingham for booking a GP appointment.