ONS Data Shows Younger Adults Struggle Most to Contact GP Practices

New Office for National Statistics analysis, linked to Census 2021, reveals that younger age groups in England are more likely to report difficulty contacting their GP practice, with inequalities also varying by ethnicity, disability and deprivation.

Younger adults are the most likely to say contacting their GP practice is difficult, the figures show — a finding from the Office for National Statistics Health Insight Survey, which has now published an overview of new questions added from Wave 13, covering fieldwork between 24 June and 16 July 2025. The survey, commissioned and funded by NHS England, collects data from adults aged 16 and over across England on their experiences of NHS services.

The most common reason adults contacted their GP practice was to book a routine or non-urgent appointment, cited by 37.6 per cent of respondents. Getting a prescription accounted for 27.5 per cent of contacts, while booking an urgent appointment was the reason for 17.2 per cent. Adults contacting for urgent appointments were far more likely to use the telephone — 55.6 per cent did so — compared with those contacting for other reasons.

Among adults who said they had a preferred healthcare professional, 66.2 per cent reported being able to see that person. The survey also found that access and satisfaction vary by age, ethnicity, disability, housing tenure and economic status, with ONS using linked Census 2021 data — within secure data-sharing frameworks — to examine those relationships across socio-demographic groups.

Kent residents fall within the survey’s national sampling frame.

That matters locally because NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board can use the findings to benchmark patient experience against national patterns and to identify groups facing barriers to access — including people in coastal and rural communities, more deprived areas, or younger age groups within the county. Local voluntary organisations working on health inequalities can draw on the Census-linked analysis to target support where GP experience is poorest.

Wave 13 also added free-text questions asking patients to explain in their own words the reasons behind positive or negative experiences of GP surgeries and community health service appointments — a qualitative layer that earlier waves lacked. The ONS classifies the Health Insight Survey outputs as “official statistics in development”, meaning methods are still being refined and the series may change. The survey began in July 2024 and is designed to complement existing sources such as the GP Patient Survey run by NHS England.