Highest and lowest ranked GP surgeries in Dudley as rated by patients

The figures were obtained from the NHS’ annual GP Patient Survey which captures patient’s opinions on their surgery by asking questions on their overall experience and elements of the practice, from booking appointments to the quality of care they received.

Patients were quizzed on their experiences from January to March this year, with the findings published this month.

Eve Hill Medical Practice in Dudley topped the table for patient satisfaction with 100% of those questioned rating their overall experience of the surgery as good.

Joining the Himley Road surgery at the top of the table was Kingswinford Medical Practice where 97% assessed the practice as good, followed by Pedmore Medical Practice, Lower Gornal Medical Practice and Dudley's St James Medical Practice which were each rated positively by 95% of respondents.

At the other end of the scale, Coseley Medical Practice in Bilston, which falls within the remit of the Dudley CCG, scored the lowest for patient satisfaction with 46% of patients rating their overall experience of the surgery as good.

Hovering just above the bottom of the table were Dudley borough surgeries Keelinge House Surgery in Holly Hall which saw 55% of patients rate the practice as good overall, followed by Chapel Street Medical Centre (Dr BK Prashara) in Lye where 56% of respondents gave their surgery an overall good rating.

Responding to the results, a spokesperson for Keelinge House said: "We are committed to improving the overall service provided by our practice for the coming year, and have already commenced an educational training programme for staff and addressed some issues with our telephony service."

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Lye's Chapel Street Medical Centre said: "We are really pleased to be above average for access on the telephone, and to hear that our receptions are helpful, patients are offered a good choice of appointments and they find it easy to use our website."

They added that staff will work with a patient representative group to make improvements based on feedback and moved to reassure patients with worries or concerns to get in touch.

The average good rating for the Dudley Clinical Commissioning Group was 81%, just shy of the national good rating of 82%, while 62% of the surgeries under the remit of the Dudley CCG rated higher than the national average satisfaction score.

The survey also revealed that patients at Pedmore Medical Practice found it the easiest in Dudley to get an appointment over the phone, with 98% of respondents saying they found it easy to get through to the surgery. In comparison, just 19% of patients reported an easy experience at Lion Health in Stourbridge.

Thorns Road Surgery was said to have the easiest website to find information and access services, with 50% of patients questioned rating the website as ‘very easy’ to use and comes as access to websites has surged in importance since the coronavirus pandemic, with many patients now accessing services online.

Responding to the results, Dr Ruth Edwards, Chair of the Dudley Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “We are pleased to see that 81% of patients rate their experience of Primary Care in Dudley as good, this is in line with national average (82%). As we analyse the results we will be paying particular attention to those practices who are at the bottom of the ratings from their patients and to those who have seen any significant decline in ratings since last year. We will also focus our attention on those top scoring practices, encouraging the sharing of best practice and supporting those who have issues to improve.

"This survey was conducted between January and March, before the recent changes to primary care access (due to the pandemic), which have emphasised the need for patients to be able to contact their GP online or over the telephone. We are pleased that across Dudley we have some of the highest rates of online access and awareness of online services. We do however have concerns over the telephone access scores for some of our practices and we will be working with them to address this."

She stressed people should continue to contact their GP surgery if they are concerned about any abnormal symptoms and added: "GP practices might be working differently but they are very much open and here to see people if necessary. Please always phone the surgeries, rather than turning up.”

Top ten surgeries within the Dudley CCG based on percentage of patients rating their overall experience as good

Eve Hill Medical Practice, Dudley- 100%

Kingswinford Medical Practice, Kingswinford- 97%

Pedmore Medical Practice, Pedmore- 95%

Lower Gornal Medical Practice, Lower Gornal- 95%

St James Medical Practice, Dudley- 95%

The Ridgeway Surgery, Sedgley- 94%

Quarry Bank Medical Centre, Quarry Bank- 93%

High Oak Surgery, Pensnett- 92%

Meadowbrook Surgery, Halesowen- 92%

Lapal Medical Practice, Halesowen- 91%

Bottom ten surgeries within the Dudley CCG based on percentage of patients rating their overall experience as good

The Waterfront Surgery, Brierley Hill- 72%

Bath Street Medical Centre, Sedgley- 71%

Central Clinic, Dudley- 71%

Lion Health, Stourbridge- 71%

Castle Meadows Surgery, Dudley- 70%

AW Surgeries, Brierley Hill- 67%

Bean Medical Practice, Dudley- 65%

Chapel Street Medical Centre (Dr BK Prashara), Lye- 56%

Keelinge House, Dudley- 55%

Coseley Medical Centre, Bilston -46%