Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Care Quality Commission statistics-based analysis of GP practices

The Care Quality Commission has today launched a statistical assessment of the risk posed by all GP practices, and hence their priority for inspection, from 1 to 6.

You can type in your postcode & see the rating for local GP practices (they are at both ends of the scale):

http://www.cqc.org.uk/content/our-intelligent-monitoring-gp-practic...

- this page also has links to documents explaining what methods they have used & what the results do & don't mean - these figures are based on statistics & surveys, not on inspections.

The story is also covered by the Guardian.

Tags for Forum Posts: Doctors, GPs, Surgeries

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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on November 18, 2014 at 9:27

I use Bridge House and really don't recognise it from the report. Yes, it can be difficult to get through but the startdard of care I get from the GPs is excellent. For example I was recently referred for physiotherapy as an NHS patient by my GP for an ailment that another pratice probably would have prescribed pain killers for.

Maybe the report exposes the danger of taking statistics at face value.

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Permalink Reply by michaelw on November 18, 2014 at 9:49

But it does take 1 month to get a non-urgent appointment at Bridge House - and if the doctor your appointment is with is off on long term sick leave, you may need to wait another month (this just happened to me & I wasn't told that the Doctor was off, I found out when I came in for the first appointment).

This difficulty getting appointments is dangerous, as it makes people delay or avoid concerns they may have, which can then develop into something more serious.

I agree the doctors are very good, once you get to see them, but there aren't enough of them & the appointment system is a nightmare.

Look at NHS Choices for some other views - the practice is among the worst for people wanting to recommend it to others.

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Permalink Reply by Bee on November 18, 2014 at 20:55

I use Bridge House as well and am not surprised about the findings of the report. Yes, the doctors are excellent when you finally get to see them, but the appointments system is a disgrace. The fact that patients have been complaining on the NHS Choices website since 2011 and the system still has not changed is a great shame.

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Permalink Reply by Antoinette on November 21, 2014 at 12:24

I coudn't agree more. Surely operating a sensible appointments system isn't so difficult to achieve in this modern age. Why do Bridge House struggle so in this department?

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Permalink Reply by maggie on December 6, 2014 at 11:31

re a month for a GP appointment. To be fair the wait for appointments is often long whatever GP practice you attend, I retained my GP from crouch End and the last time I had to wait 5 weeks for an appointment with my own (excellent) GP, but could be seen sooner by another GP if it was really urgent.

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Permalink Reply by John D on December 6, 2014 at 11:38

I don't understand why we have to wait weeks for an appointment. Is it because greedy doctors have too many on their lists ?

Usually I feel that, either I will have cured myself, or I will be dead before the appointment comes round. Back in the 60s / 70s If you wanted to see a doctor you just rolled up during the posted surgery hours, waited a bit and were seen. ( You could have a smoke while you were waiting :-) )

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Permalink Reply by pamish on December 6, 2014 at 14:00

The wait for appointments is there because there is a queue, because there is a queue. If they can just once throw everything at it to bring it down to a day, then it would stay at a day. My eye surgeon pal was once employed extra on Saturdays at one hospital for a couple of months to clear up the waiting list. She was paid a lot of money (£xx per eye), with one other surgeon and the necessary ancillary staff, and they just whizzed through about 20 cataract operations a day each. All paperwork etc ready, patients ready, goodbye waiting list.

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Permalink Reply by Abi on November 19, 2014 at 10:23

Pretty amazed to see that our surgery (Fernlea) received a score of 5 out of a possible 6. Guess I should hang on there. In fairness to them our experience of referrals for serious/life-threatening conditions (of which we've sadly been through two) was very positive, but I feel like the problems (waiting times of 3+ weeks for self-assessed non urgent appointments etc) have only really started to kick in quite recently when the other local surgeries closed down.