THE supersized Lion Health GP surgery in Stourbridge has retained its rating as the worst in the borough to get through to on the telephone, according to a patient survey.

The surgery, off Lowndes Road, which has nearly 30,000 patients on its books, has had the lowest rating of all surgeries in the borough for ease of getting through by phone for the last few years.

Patients have often told of being left hanging on the telephone trying to get through to book an appointment – and, despite pledges to work to bring the phone system up to scratch by local health bosses, the survey suggests there has been little improvement.

Betterment was first promised a few months after the Covid pandemic hit after the NHS’s GP Patient Survey revealed just 19 per cent of patients surveyed rated the surgery as being easy to get through to on the telephone. The following year just six per cent of patients said it was easy.

This increased slightly to 10 per cent in 2023 – with no improvement shown in this year’s survey which shines a light on how GP surgeries were viewed by patients between January and March.

Data shows only 10 per cent of patients found it fairly easy to get through, no one found it very easy and 76 per cent of patients found it fairly difficult or very difficult.

Nationally 50 per cent of patients said they found it easy to get through to their GP practice by phone, while 44 per cent of patients in the Black Country Integrated Care Board region found it easy.

Overall, 60 per cent of patients who took part in the survey rated their experience of the practice as good - compared to 78 per cent nationally and 68 per cent in the local ICB area.

This was the lowest overall rating in the Stourbridge area, along with Chapel Street Medical Centre which was also given a 60 per cent good rating overall.

Patients that did manage to get through to Lion Health gave the surgery top marks; 92 per cent of patients surveyed said they found the reception and administrative team helpful.

And a whopping 94 per cent said they had trust and confidence in the healthcare professional they saw, versus 90 per cent nationally and 92 per cent in the ICB area.

Only seven per cent of patients, however, managed to speak to their preferred healthcare professional all of the time or almost always, versus 40 per cent nationally and 37 per cent in the local ICB region.

Lion Health told the News it was “disappointed” to read the findings of the survey but said the surgery has increased its “level of access (appointments) by nearly a third since April 2023”.

A spokesperson said: “This has resulted in us providing more care, more appointments and more calls/contact with patients than ever before. This places Lion Health in the top quartile of practices in the ICB for access levels. In addition to this increase, we have also focused on improving our capabilities to handle more calls/communication with patients as well as improving our call performance.

“According to our own data, the percentage of calls answered for appointments has increased to nearly 90 per cent whilst the average waiting time for the appointments/general enquiries has reduced to approximately five minutes on average - although this time is higher during peak times.

“Although we appreciate that we have more to do, these are significant improvements. The patient feedback we have received has also shown an improvement in the level of satisfaction patients have had with their experience at Lion Health.

“Going forward, we are working on a number of initiatives to make further improvements to the way in which we deliver care to our patients.”

The survey revealed that Castle Meadows Surgery at Milking Bank, Dudley, has the best rating in the borough for ease of getting through on the phone with an 88 per cent satisfaction rating.

Thorns Road Surgery in Quarry Bank was next best with 86 per cent of patients saying it was easy to get through – and The Summerhill Surgery in Kingswinford was next with 84 per cent of patients rating this positively.

Northway Medical Centre in Sedgley was rated the highest in the Dudley borough area, scoring the best overall rating with 93 per cent of patients surveyed rating their experience of the practice as good.

Bean Medical Practice, in Dudley, scored the lowest for overall experience with 54 per cent of patients who took part in the annual survey saying they had a good experience.

To see the full results go to https://gp-patient.co.uk/

In Stourbridge – Pedmore Medical Practice and Wychbury Medical Group had the highest overall rating with 80 per cent of patients describing the surgeries as good.

In the Brierley Hill area, Thorns Road Surgery scored the highest overall rating with 88 per cent of people rating it as good.

In the Kingswinford and Wordsley area the best rated surgery was Rangeways Road Surgery where 92 per cent of patients described it as good.

Sarb Basi, director of primary care for the NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board (ICB), said: “Hearing from patients is one of the most important indicators of whether patients’ needs are being met by local NHS services.

“Each practice will have received their own survey results, and it is the ICBs expectation that they will use this feedback to form any improvements they may need to make.

“We will also review which practices need more support in these areas, as well as those who have performed well, so we can share the learning widely.”