To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the results of the NH S GP survey; what plans he has to act on the findings; and if he will make a statement. [123053]

Information from patient surveys is central to informing local service improvements. We expect primary care trusts to use the information from the national health service general practitioner survey to develop action plans to improve services to better meet the needs of local people.Results were disseminated in March 2003, on a strategic health authority (SHA) basis. This enabled the cross-comparison of the results, for local benchmarking purposes. Such an approach enables the SHAs, as the local headquarters of the NHS, to maintain an overview of how results are formulated into local follow-up plans.