WE ALL have personal ratings for our GP surgery, depending on whether we nab a same-day appointment or are left on hold for hours.
Now, you can see if your rating lines up with the one given by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) – as an interactive map reveals the best and worst rated GP practices across England.
A study has revealed that 5 per cent of GPs in England – amounting to 292 practices – are currently performing below standard.
This means they’ve been rated as ‘Inadequate’ or ‘Requires Improvement’ by the CQC, which regulates health and social care services in England.
Medical negligence specialists at Patient Claim Line revealed the locations of the worst rated NHS GPs and the concerns raised by inspectors.
A total of 278 GPs were given an ‘Outstanding’ rating by regulators, meaning they’re “performing exceptionally well” – about 4.8 per cent of practices.
Meanwhile, 90 per cent of NHS GPs – amounting to 5,193 surgeries – were graded ‘Good’ to show that they’re “performing well and meeting expectations”.
Inspectors thought 261 services weren’t performing as well as they should and a total of 31 were rated ‘Inadequate’ – meaning a service performing so badly that the CQC needed to take action against its provider.
Nermeen Salahuddin, a solicitor at Patient Claim Line, said: “We are concerned by the findings revealed in CQC inspections of doctors’ surgeries across England.
“Our analysis shows alarming shortcomings in the NHS, with GP practices being cited for serious lapses in patient safety and care.
“The inspections highlight a lack of oversight, ineffective governance, and failures to address key areas such as safeguarding, staff training, and the management of health risks.
“These deficiencies, including the misdiagnosis of serious conditions like diabetes and the lack of adequate monitoring for patients on
high-risk medications, show that patient care is being compromised in ways that could have life-altering consequences.
“GPs rated ‘inadequate’ must take immediate and decisive action to ensure that patients across the country feel safe and properly cared for when they visit their doctors.”
GPs are assessed on five core categories, whether they’re: safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led.
GPs have called CQC one-word ratings “fundamentally flawed” and urged that the CQC inspection regime should be scrapped altogether.
But others say that the CQC’s inspections and ratings are an
effective system for regulating and inspecting health and social care providers in England.
Of the GPs that failed to meet regulators’ standards, six were in Essex, four were in the West Midlands and another four in London.
CQC experts identified issues with systems supposed to ensure patient safety, staffing and training, governance and hygiene.
Patient Claim Line picked out ratings from some GP practices rated ‘Inadequate’.
For example, inspectors at Church Langley Medical Centre in Harlow, Essex, found “there were gaps in systems to assess, monitor and manage risks to patient safety and that “vaccines were not
appropriately stored to ensure they remained safe and effective”.
A scheme dubbed Pharmacy First that allows chemists to treat seven common health conditions was rolled out in pharmacies in England earlier this year.
Its aim is to free up GP appointments for patients who need them most and give people quicker and more convenient access to healthcare and medicines, where necessary.
Pharmacists across England are able to assess and treat patients for:
“Appropriate standards of cleanliness and hygiene were not met,” inspectors added in their rating.
As for Faircross s Health Centre in Barking, a “misdiagnosis of diabetes” was identified in three patients.
For the Tulasi Medical Centre in Dagenham, inspectors said: “There continued to be a risk of harm to patients due to the absence of all the necessary systems and processes being in place, or operating effectively which could adversely impact the quality and safety of
the service being delivered at the practice.”
A total of 278 GPs were rated ‘Outstanding’, accounting for 4.8 per cent of surgeries across England.
Twenty-three of these were in Devon and Greater Manchester, 19 in Nottinghamshire and 17 in Derbyshire.
Another 14 were in the West Midlands and 11 in Cumbria.
The report comes after ambulance and A&E bosses warned that more patients are falling critically ill because they fail to get help from their GP.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting last month that hospitals will be ranked in a national league table as part of a crackdown on badly performing trusts.
Mr Streeting said there will be “zero tolerance for failure” and crisis teams will be sent to turn around low-ranking hospitals that failed to meet standards on waiting times, patient care and spending.
