NHS England has published its national dataset on Cloud Based Telephony (CBT) in general practice. It gives surgeries, PCNs and ICBs their first consistent national benchmark for understanding call handling performance at scale. Because the NHS England telephony dataset sits outside the familiar reports practices see every day, it has already raised questions. It has also opened the door to far more meaningful conversations about access, demand and where surgeries may need support.
In this blog, we break down what the data shows, what it means for practices and why clean, reliable telephony data matters for improving access. It also highlights how tools like Surgery Connect and Surgery Insights can help practices understand the full picture and act on it.
Why the NHS England telephony dataset matters
Until now, there has been no standardised national way to compare how practices handle calls. Surgeries could only look at their own internal reports or feedback from patients. The NHS England telephony dataset changes that. It gives the NHS a baseline view of how patients use phone lines, how often they get through and how long they wait. It also gives practices much clearer insight into how their performance stacks up against others.
This matters because phone access remains the most commonly used route into general practice. With 62% of people contacting their surgery by phone last time they tried (GP Patient Survey 2025), Cloud-based telephony is the foundation for a digital front door to primary care. A national dataset helps shine a light on pressure points and gives practices something more concrete to work with when planning demand and improving patient journeys.
How the NHS England telephony data is collected
The full details for the NHS England telephony data collection are available at the NHS Digital website, but there are a few points that are especially helpful for practices to understand:
- Only practices that have consented via Calculating Quality Reporting Service (CQRS) are included in any supplier’s data
- NHS England shares a list of consented practices each month
- Suppliers can only report for those who have opted in
- When an account covers multiple practices, the data is submitted for the account as a whole. NHS England does not split this out at practice level and labels these as “unmapped” or “unassigned” in their published totals
These rules explain why some figures may appear missing, merged or different to what a practice expects.
What the first NHS England telephony dataset shows
For October 2025, NHS England received data from 4,649 practices, covering almost 75% of the country. In total:
- 31.4 million calls were made to general practice
- 88.2% were “dealt with” (54% answered, 7.3% booked a callback, 26% ended during the IVR)
- 11.8% were “not dealt with” (missed calls and voicemails)
- 57.9% of calls were answered within two minutes
The timing of demand also reinforces what practices already know. Nearly 7% of all calls in the entire month came in between 8am–10am on Mondays alone.
For practices and PCNs, these numbers highlight two things. First, many patients still rely heavily on the phone, especially at peak times. Second, there is room across the system to reduce abandoned calls, shorten queues and spread demand more evenly.
What the NHS England telephony data says about supplier performance
NHS England’s publication makes clear that suppliers are not equal in the quality of the data they submit or the performance their customers achieve.
Across the 27 suppliers on the framework:
- Only 13 appear in the national statistics
- Only 6 provided usable data
- Only 2 (X-on Health and ITS Digital, which also uses Surgery Connect) provided complete data from day one
- The other 4 suppliers had data quality issues noted by NHS England
Among suppliers with published data, X-on Health customers have:
- The lowest rate of missed calls
- The lowest proportion of calls waiting both over 5 minutes and between 4–5 minutes
- The lowest proportion of answered calls where the caller had to queue for over 300 seconds or 241-300 seconds
This reflects both the stability of Surgery Connect and the way practices use its features, such as Patient Callback, unlimited lines and queue transparency. High-quality data also matters. Because X-on Health provides complete, clean data, the national picture is more accurate and easier for both practices and ICBs to interpret.
What the NHS England telephony data doesn’t tell us: understanding the limitations
The NHS England telephony dataset is helpful for understanding national demand, but it has limits when assessing individual practice performance. Because its definitions may differ from internal reports, the numbers won’t always match. This doesn’t mean the data is wrong, just that it simply measures the system through a different lens.
A few points are worth keeping in mind:
- Not all suppliers are included yet. Data is not yet available from all telephony suppliers. While coverage is likely to improve over time, the dataset currently doesn’t represent the whole market.
- Limited practice-level visibility in shared accounts. Where multiple practices share a single telephony account, their calls appear in national and ICB totals but cannot be separated at practice level. This explains why some practices may not see their own figures in the published breakdown.
- Voicemail is counted as a missed call. The dataset classifies any call that reaches voicemail as “missed”. For practices that use voicemail in a structured way, this may not reflect the true patient journey.
- Callback activity is reported separately. The “answered” total excludes calls where a patient booked a callback and later spoke to the practice. Because callbacks often give patients a better experience than queueing, it’s more accurate to look at answered calls and callbacks together to understand successful contact.
- Outbound activity is not included. Outbound calls beyond callbacks are not counted, even though they form part of daily workload and patient communication.
While the NHS England telephony dataset allows for benchmarking, it cannot explain why practices perform differently. Operating models, staffing and call flows all vary, and flexible telephony platforms like Surgery Connect are designed to support many approaches. To get the full picture of patient access, these figures should be considered alongside sources such as the GP Patient Survey and monthly appointment data.
How practices can use the NHS England telephony data
For the first time, phones are measurable at a standardised, national scale. Practices can use this to:
- Understand how their access compares to others
- Spot spikes in demand more clearly
- Review call abandonment alongside queue times
- Sense-check existing workflows
- Make informed decisions about staffing at peak times
This is where centralised dashboards like Surgery Insights add real value. While the NHS England telephony dataset gives a system-wide view, Surgery Insights brings this together with practice-level telephony, appointments, online consultation and NHS App data. Practices can see:
- Where bottlenecks occur
- How digital tools are being used
- How call handling compares to national averages
- How demand varies day-by-day and hour-by-hour
Using GP practice data to unlock operational efficiency, teams can move from reactive firefighting to proactive planning.
The first standardised NHS England telephony dataset is an important step. It supports consistency, accountability and a better understanding of patient behaviour. It will also help shape better decisions at PCN and ICB level as England moves toward a more digital, preventative, community-focused system.
But the data is only as useful as the tools that help you act on it. With Surgery Connect handling millions of calls reliably and Surgery Insights giving practices full visibility, X-on Health is well placed to support surgeries as they interpret the data and improve access for every patient.
If you’d like help understanding your figures or want to see how your practice compares nationally, we can support you.