About the Health Insight Survey

The Health Insight Survey is being conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and funded by NHS England. The ONS is the government's largest independent producer of statistics. We collect information about the UK's society and economy. This provides evidence for policymakers and decision-makers so that they can direct resources to where they are needed most.

The Health Insight Survey is designed to give patients the opportunity to offer regular feedback about their experiences of the NHS. Understanding patient experience is important to making sure the NHS can offer the best possible service. The survey asks about your experiences of accessing care at your local GP practice and experience of other NHS services in England. It includes questions about a range of topics, such as how easy or difficult it is to contact your practice, your understanding of how requests are handled, and your overall experience of care across NHS services, including:

• community health services 

• dental care 

• pharmacy services 

• if you are currently on an NHS hospital waiting list

The statistics produced will provide valuable information to help the NHS improve local health services for people like you and your family, inform national NHS policy, and support the NHS in monitoring their Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care, which aims to make it easier and quicker for patients to get the help they need from primary care.

People who took part in the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey (CIS), and who agreed to be approached about other ethically approved research studies, were contacted to take part in the Health Insight Survey in the first instance. Over the course of the survey, we will be inviting additional participants to obtain a sample that is as representative as possible.

The Health Insight Survey is designed to give patients the opportunity to offer regular feedback about their experiences of the NHS. Understanding patient experience is key to making sure the NHS can offer the best possible service.

By taking part you will help us, over the course of the survey, to improve our understanding of broader NHS pressures, your experiences of contacting your GP practice, your understanding of how requests are handled, and your overall experience of care across NHS services in England, including community health services, dental care and pharmacy services. The statistics produced will provide valuable information to help the NHS improve local health services for people like you and your family, inform national NHS policy, and support the NHS in monitoring their Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care, which aims to make it easier and quicker for patients to get the help they need from primary care.

You may also receive an invitation to complete the annual GP Patient Survey. This is a different survey with a similar purpose. Together, the Health Insight Survey and the GP Patient Survey support the NHS in using patient feedback to improve local health services. If you also receive this, please do complete both surveys. You can find out more about GP Patient Survey on their webpage.

You will receive an invite by email, text or letter from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the NHS to take part.  

If you are already taking part in the Health Insight Survey, any emails you receive will be from office.for.national.statistics.surveys@notifications.service.gov.uk. We will ask you to complete an online questionnaire approximately every four weeks. Each questionnaire should take no longer than around five to ten minutes to complete. You will have seven days to do this, this is called a "questionnaire window". 

Initially, you will be asked questions on your personal details such as your name, date of birth, address, and ethnicity. Over the course of the survey, we will ask your experiences of contacting your GP practice, your understanding of how requests are handled, and your overall experience of care across NHS services in England, including community health services, dental care and pharmacy services. 

We are running this survey online. You can complete the questionnaire on a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. If you are unable to complete the questionnaire online, you can ask a trusted person to help you. You can also email Health.Studies@ons.gov.uk if you need advice on completing the questionnaire. If you would like to complete the questionnaire by telephone, call us for free on 0808 196 1270. The questionnaire could take longer to complete by telephone.

Read more about taking part in the survey on our How to take part page.

Your participation is entirely voluntary, and you are free to leave the Health Insight Survey at any time without providing a reason.

It is possible that not everyone in your household has been invited to take part in this survey.

Anyone in your household who has been invited to take part in the survey can make their individual choice as to whether they want to take part. Your participation will be important regardless of whether other household members take part or not.

If you have not completed three Health Insight Survey questionnaires in a row, we will assume you do not want to take part, and we will not contact you about this survey again.

From wave 7 (7 January to 29 January 2025) this will no longer apply, and you will continue to receive further invites to the survey. You can leave the Health Insight Survey at any time without providing a reason by emailing Health.Studies@ons.gov.uk.

Any information you provide for this survey will be legally protected and treated as confidential by ONS in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

We will use the information we collect to produce statistics and undertake research in the public good. The ONS is the Controller of personal data collected during the survey. Information collected during the survey, including your personal data, will not be shared with NHS England.

For more information about what we do with your data, including your rights and contact details for our Data Protection Officers, please see the data privacy and protection information for the Health Insight Survey, and the ONS data protection pages.

Your participation is entirely voluntary. You are free to leave the Health Insight Survey at any time without providing a reason by emailing Health.Studies@ons.gov.uk

It may take a few working days to process your request to leave the survey. Any requests or reminders you receive to complete a questionnaire in the period between asking to leave the survey and the processing of your withdrawal can be ignored. If you have already completed one or more questionnaires when you decide to leave, we will still use the data collected up to the time you leave the survey. This is because it provides vital information supporting our understanding of broader NHS pressures, your experiences of contacting your GP practice, your understanding of how requests are handled, and your overall experience of care across NHS services in England.

At the Office for National Statistics (ONS) we are committed to making continued improvements to not only the data we collect, but also the way we collect it, and the burden that places on people who take part in our surveys. You may be invited to take part in a specific study about your experiences of taking part in the Health Insight Survey. This invitation will contain more detailed information about what is involved.

If you have any further questions about the Health Insight Survey or taking part, email Health.Studies@ons.gov.uk If you cannot access the internet, you can call us on 0808 196 1270.