Gera GP Access Index — Methodology
The exact source, components and arithmetic behind the index, so it can be independently reproduced and checked. Last reviewed 2026-07-03.
1. Source
Every figure is from the GP Patient Survey 2025 — National Results (NHS England), the national survey commissioned by NHS England and run by Ipsos. The 2025 results are based on 702,837 responses from patients aged 16 and over (a 25.8% response rate), with fieldwork from 30 December 2024 to 1 April 2025, published 10 July 2025. The data covers England and is public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Prior-year (2024) figures are the survey's own stated comparators.
2. Components
The index uses the three GP Patient Survey measures of getting in touch with the practice. Clinical measures such as trust in the professional or whether needs were met are deliberately excluded, so the index isolates access rather than overall satisfaction.
| Component | Underlying survey question | 2025 % positive |
|---|---|---|
| Good experience contacting the practice | “Overall, how would you describe your experience of contacting your GP practice the last time you tried?” | 69.6% |
| Easy to get through on the phone | “Generally, how easy or difficult is it to contact your GP practice on the phone?” | 52.9% |
| Practice website easy to use | “How easy or difficult was it to use your GP practice’s website to look for information or access services?” — Asked of patients who had used their practice website. | 51% |
3. Calculation
The index is the simple, equal-weighted mean of the three component percentages, read on a 0–100 scale. No weighting and no adjustment are applied — this keeps the figure fully reproducible from the published numbers.
| Year | Sum of components | ÷ 3 = index |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 index | 69.6 + 52.9 + 51 | 57.8 / 100 |
| 2024 index | 67.3 + 49.7 + 48 | 55.0 / 100 |
| Change | — | +2.8 pts |
Website ease-of-use is reported by the source to the nearest whole percent; the contacting and phone measures to one decimal place. The index is rounded to one decimal place.
4. Regional and practice-level results
The GP Patient Survey publishes results for all 42 Integrated Care Boards and around 6,400 GP practices. Per-ICB and per-practice Gera GP Access Index values would be computed the same way from the ICB-/practice-level files; they are not published in this release, so no area-level league table is asserted here. To check a specific area or practice, use the official lookup at gp-patient.co.uk.
5. Limitations
- The index is a summary of a sample survey, not a census. Like all survey results it carries sampling uncertainty, and response rates vary by area and group.
- It measures reported experience of access, not appointment volumes or waiting times. For the activity side, see the GP appointment access data built from NHS England's Appointments in General Practice statistics.
- The website measure is asked only of patients who used their practice website, so it reflects that subgroup's experience.
- Equal weighting is a deliberate simplicity choice; a different weighting would give a different number. The method is fixed and published so comparisons over time are consistent.
- The index is general information, not medical advice, and it is not a rating of any named GP practice.
Contains public sector information published by NHS England and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: GP Patient Survey 2025 — National Results (NHS England) (2025, published 10 July 2025).
Back to the Gera GP Access Index.
Editorial data review: figures on this page are drawn directly from the official public source cited here and were cross-checked against that source at publication; derived values (percentages, medians, index scores) are computed from those published figures using the stated methodology — nothing is estimated or invented. Last reviewed: 2026-07-03. This page is general information, not medical advice.
Related NHS & health data
Every figure comes from official, openly licensed sources. These data hubs link together so you can see the whole health picture for an area.
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- NHS costsWhat NHS care costs the system, by service area, from published reference costs.
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- Vaccination uptakeFlu and COVID vaccination coverage across England, from UKHSA and NHS data.
- GP prescribing intensityHow prescribing volumes vary between GP practices and regions, from NHS BSA data.
- Healthiest placesWhere health outcomes are strongest across the UK, from ONS and public-health data.