Health and Care Experience Survey 2025 to 2026: National Report

Introduction

This report shows the results of the Health and Care Experience Survey 2025 to 2026. The survey was conducted between October 2025 and January 2026 and asked people about their experience of accessing and using their GP Practice and other local healthcare services; receiving care, support and help with everyday living; and caring responsibilities.

The questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 491,243 people who were registered with a GP Practice in Scotland, lived in Scotland, and were aged 17 and over on 22 September 2025. Questionnaires were sent out in October and November 2025 and asked people about their experiences during the previous 12 months.

Over 94,000 people responded to the survey, giving an overall response rate of 19%.

Throughout this report the survey results are presented as weighted average percentages. Different proportions of registered patients were selected from each GP Practice and the response rate varied by age and sex. Weighting the results provides results which are more representative of the people using the services.

Survey results will be subject to a margin of error. Confidence intervals at the 95% level are used in the survey dashboard and supporting excel tables to quantify that margin of error.

The survey has been conducted every two years since 2009. One of the data sources used to calculate the weights for the 2025 to 2026 survey was updated to use more recent data. The weighting methodology itself remains unchanged, but this update has a minor impact on comparisons with previous years or the “Your GP practice” and the “Treatment or Advice from your GP practice” sections of the survey. For more information on the survey methodology and comparability of survey results over time, please see the Health and Care Experience Survey 2025 to 2026 Technical Report.

Survey results on the Experience of Help, Care and Support are only comparable from the 2023 to 2024 publication onwards, due to changes made to the survey questions in 2023 to 2024.