How to take part

Welcome to the Health Insight Survey and thank you for taking part.

To begin the survey, please select “Start now”. You will need your unique 16-character access code to enter the questionnaire. You can find your access code and questionnaire window dates in the email that was recently sent to you.

Start now

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 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.

For more information see our About the Health Insight Survey page.

You will receive an email with a link to the questionnaire and a 16-character unique access code approximately every four weeks. Each time you will have seven days to complete your questionnaire (this includes the day you receive your email). This time period you have to complete the questionnaire is called your "questionnaire window". Your email will include your start and closing dates for your questionnaire window.

You will need your 16-character access code to enter the questionnaire. Your code is unique to each questionnaire window. You will be sent a new access code for each questionnaire you complete. Any emails you receive will be from office.for.national.statistics.surveys@notifications.service.gov.uk.

Over the course of the survey, you will be asked questions on topics such as:

• your work or education status (the first time you complete the questionnaire)
• your recent experience of accessing primary care, including GP, dental practices and pharmacy services

You can complete the questionnaire on a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. If you need to, you can stop and come back to the questionnaire later using the same 16-character access code, if it is within your questionnaire window. If you stop and do not submit the questionnaire within your questionnaire window, the information you have entered so far will be saved. In the first instance, we will remove this information from the data used for analysis. However, in future we may use it if required.

Additional support

We are running this survey online. 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 or help completing the questionnaire. The questionnaire could take longer to complete by telephone.

If you cannot find your 16-character access code, you do not need to contact us. You can use a new, replacement access code which we will send you automatically in a reminder email if you have not submitted your questionnaire a few days before your questionnaire window ends.

Once you have filled out your questionnaire, please follow the onscreen instructions, and be sure to select the green "submit" button when prompted. This will ensure that your answers are recorded properly.

If submitted successfully, you will see a confirmation page.

If you cannot complete your questionnaire during a questionnaire window you do not need to do anything. Your participation is important, and we will contact you again when your next questionnaire window starts.

If you cannot find your 16-character access code, you can use a new, replacement access code which we will send you automatically in a reminder email if you have not submitted your questionnaire a few days before your questionnaire window ends. If you do not complete a Health Insight Survey questionnaire three times in a row, we will assume you do not want to take part and withdraw you from the survey. If this happens and you would still like to take part, you can email Health.Studies@ons.gov.uk to be added again.

If you move house, please tell us by emailing Health.Studies@ons.gov.uk.

We will also ask for your postcode in the first Health Insight Survey questionnaire you complete. This information is important, as it will enable us to look into differences between areas across England.

If you move house, you will also need to record your new postcode in the next questionnaire you complete.

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 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.

If you do not complete a questionnaire three times in a row, we will assume you do not want to take part and withdraw you from the survey.

If you have any further questions on the Health Insight Survey, email Health.Studies@ons.gov.uk.

If you cannot access the internet, you can call us on +44 8081 96270.