Birmingham GP patient satisfaction improving, latest figures show

Members of the NHS Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board (ICB) will discuss results from the annual General Practice Survey 2025 when it meets on Monday (September 8).

And the data shows more GP appointments were delivered than the previous year while improvements had been made in eight out of nine key measures.

ICB bosses said they were on track to deliver more improvements in the current year and remained committed to improving further in 2026/27.

In Birmingham and Solihull (BSol), 20,438 patients completed the survey, which represents a response rate of 18 per cent.

A report to board shows in 2024/25, a total of 9,256,893 appointments were delivered – 271,913 above target and at an average of 771,408 per month.

BSol achieved a 49.3 per cent for same day appointments compared with a regional rate of 45.4 per cent and England rate of 44.2 per cent.

For appointments being delivered within 14 days, BSol achieved a 88.1 per cent rate compared with regional and England’s rates which both stood at 82.1 per cent.

Among the key measures where services in BSol had improved, 70 per cent of patients said their overall experience of their GP practice was good – a rise of three per cent from the previous year.

A total of 91 per cent of patients said they had confidence and trust in the healthcare professional at their last appointment, a small increase of one per cent from 2024.

The survey also showed 88 per cent of people said their needs were met at their last appointment, another one per cent increase from last year.

The one area which saw a drop in satisfaction levels was the number of people who said it was easy to contact their GP practice using their practice website, which was recorded at 43 per cent – a five per cent reduction.

But the report said this survey came at a time when practices were implementing new websites and said next year’s results would provide a ‘better measure for comparison’.

The report said: “The BSol system has seen an overall improvement in the GP Patient Survey Results in 2025 in comparison to 2024 and more appointments have been delivered than in the previous year.

“Whilst there is some way to go in comparison to national benchmark the analysis demonstrates local progress aligned to the BSol General Practice Transformation Plan the aim of which is to improve patient access and tackle unwarranted variation.

“It has been BSol ICBs vision as first set out in the inception strategy to establish dedicated general practice leadership and a provider support unit to provide the infrastructure support to drive general practice improvement.

“In BSol our response to reform is set out in the General Practice

Transformation Plan and we have seen improvements in year one (2024/25), are on track with improvements in year two (2025/26) and are committed to drive the aims for year three (2026/27).

“Significantly we have halted multi-year continued deterioration and turned the corner.”