Ranking of Local GPs Published

How does your local surgery in Ealing rank?

For the first time ever figures have been published showing the relative performance of GP's surgeries in England.

The average score achieved nationally was 91% with some local surgeries scoring well above that and thereby gaining bonus payments to help provide funds.

The top ranked local surgery was that of Dr. Naish of Hanwell, closely followed by several other surgeries scoring over 99%. Dr Naish collected 1,046.1 of the 1,050 available points. The Borough average was 92.5%, compared to 91.5% in Hammersmith and 92.7% in Hounslow.

The ranking system which is called the Quality and Outcomes framework is a voluntary process that awards surgeries points for clinical care, patient experience, practice organisation and extra services, such as child immunisations, it may offer.

GPs' payments are calculated based on how many points they score out of a possible 1,050, each point earning surgeries £77.50. The final sum paid to practices is also adjusted to take account of their workload and the relative health of patients in their area.

Health Minister Lord Warner congratulated GPs saying, "The high scores show that the new GP contract we put in place last year is proving successful in giving practices a real incentive to improve the quality of care for NHS patients and to provide a wide range of services locally."

NHS Alliance chairman Dr Michael Dixon said, " we should all be proud of what GPs and primary care have achieved. General practice in this country is the envy of the world and we should celebrate it."

The high scores achieved by GPs could mean further financial problems for local Primary Care Trusts as they mean that an extra £200 million will have to be found to pay bonuses compared o what was expected.

Some GPs have expressed concerns that the tables may be an unfair way to compare surgeries and will mislead people about the best place to get quality care.

September 9, 2005