This indicator measures the percentage of people who describe the overall care provided by their GP practice as Excellent or Good. Find out more about this indicator.

The Percentage of people who describe the overall care provided by their GP practice as Excellent or Good in Scotland was at 90% in 2009/10. It has since fallen to 67% in 2021/22, which is down 12 percentage points from 79% in 2019/20.

The Percentage of people who describe the overall care provided by their GP practice as Excellent or Good in Scotland fell by 12 percentage points between 2019/20 and 2021/22, from 79% in 2019/20 to 67% in 2021/22.

Fieldwork for the 2021/22 survey was carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic. Questionnaires were sent out in November 2021 asking about people’s experiences during the previous 12 months. Therefore, there were a number of important changes to how services are provided that should be taken into account when making comparisons with previous surveys:

• Guidance was issued to GP practices not to treat patients face to face unless clinically necessary.

• Social distancing was introduced in practices.

• While there were more remote consultations, electronic booking systems were used less as existing systems couldn’t screen for COVID-19 symptoms.

The 2021/22 survey results show that those aged 65 or over were more likely to describe their experience as excellent or good compared to younger age groups. There was a gap of 9 percentage points between the most deprived areas (61%) and least deprived areas (70%). Fewer people with a disability reported overall care as excellent or good compared to those with no disability.

The Health and Social Care Partnership with the highest percentage of people who rated the overall care provided by their GP practice as Excellent or Good was Orkney Islands with 88% of people rating the care provided positively, while North Lanarkshire was the lowest with 52%.

The percentage of respondents rating the overall care provided by their GP practice as Excellent or Good generally increased the age of the respondent, with the percentage of respondents rating the care they received positively ranging from 58% in the youngest age group (17-24) to 71% in the oldest age group (65+).

Results varied by ethnicity, with people identifying as African being the most positive about the overall care provided by their GP practice (75% rating it as excellent or good), while the least positive are those identifying as other ethnic group with 61% rating it as excellent or good.

Those living in deprived areas are less likely to rate the overall quality of care provided by their GP practice as Excellent or Good compared to those from less deprived areas. 61% of those living in the most deprived quintile rated the quality of care from their GP practice as Excellent or Good, 9 percentage points lower than those who live in the least deprived quintiles where 70% rated it as Excellent or Good.

Those who indicated their religion was Church of Scotland, Other Christian or Jewish rated the overall quality of their care from the GP practice more positively (68%, 71% and 77% respectively, rated their care as Excellent or Good) than average (67%). Those who indicated they have no religion or were Muslim rated the quality of the care from their GP practice less positively (66% and 61%, respectively) than average (67%). Differences for other religions were not statistically different from the average.

Those who didn’t have a disability were more likely to rate the overall care from their GP practice positively (70% rating it as excellent or good), compared to those who indicated that they had a disability that limited their day-to-day activities a lot (59%). 62% of those who indicated they had a disability and it limited their day-to-day activities a little rated the overall care from their GP practice positively.

People in remote rural areas were typically more positive about the overall care provided by their GP practice with 79% of them rating the overall care provided by their GP practice positively, compared with 67% overall. Those living in other urban areas or accessible small towns were generally less likely to report a positive experience with 61% of them reporting the care provided by their GP practice as Excellent or Good.

67% of males rated the overall quality of care provided by their GP practice as excellent or good, compared to 66% of females and 49% of people who identified as other.