NHS Scotland performance against LDP standards

LDP Standard

GPs to provide 48 hour access or advance booking to an appropriate member of the GP team for at least 90 per cent of patients.

Current national performance

In 2021/22, 89 per cent of survey responses were positive for 48 hour access to an appropriate healthcare professional.

In 2021/22, 48 per cent of survey responses were positive for booking an appointment with a GP more than 48 hours in advance.

About this LDP standard

Often a patient's first contact with the NHS is through their GP practice. It is vital, therefore, that every member of the public has fast and convenient access to their local primary medical services to ensure better outcomes and experiences for patients. The performance measure will be monitored through the results of the national healthcare experience survey, which directly measures patients' experience of getting access to primary medical services.

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 practise 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.

Performance against this standard

48 hour GP access

The performance measure for this standard is measured by the Health and Care Experience Survey and says that at least 90% of people should have 48-hour access to the appropriate healthcare professional.

Information from this survey for 2020/21 shows that the proportion of positive responses for 48-hour access to an appropriate healthcare professional was 89 per cent.

The graph below shows national performance on the 48-hour GP access standard since 2011/12.

NHS Board level performance is shown for the most recent time period in the table below.

The table below shows the weighted 1 percentage of positive responses for 48-hour access to an appropriate healthcare professional, by NHS Board, for financial year 2020/21.

Source: Health and Care Experience Survey

1 For information on weightings , see  https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/health-services/primary-care/health-and-care-experience-survey/  

Advance booking

The performance measure for this standard is measured by the Health and Care Experience Survey and says that at least 90% of people should be able to book an appointment with a GP more than 48 hours in advance.

Information from this survey for 2020/21 shows that the proportion of positive responses for booking an appointment with a GP more than 48 hours in advance was 48 per cent.

The graph below shows national performance on the Advanced booking standard since 2011/12.

NHS Board level performance is shown for the most recent time period in the table below.

The table below shows the weighted 1 percentage of positive responses for booking an appointment with a GP more than 48 hours in advance, by NHS Board, for financial year 2020/21.

Source: Health and Care Experience Survey

1  For information on weightings , see  https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/health-services/primary-care/health-and-care-experience-survey/

Further information

Health & Care Experience Survey : GP survey Information.

Health and Care Experience Survey 

48 hour access website

Related National Outcomes

• We are healthy and active
• We live in communities that are inclusive, empowered, resilient and safe

Page updated : 10 June 2022