Oldham's best and worst GP practices - as voted by patients

NHS England's Patient Survey 2022, released this week, asked patients about the level of care they experience at their local surgery.

The questionnaire covered everything from how easy it is to get through to someone on the phone, how helpful receptionists are and how easy it is to use the GP practice's website, as well as an overall assessment of the surgery.

See below for our full searchable table of Oldham GP practice rankings

Across the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership, 19,327 questionnaires were sent out to Oldhamers of which 4,088 were returned and completed.

This put the response rate this year at just 21 per cent compared to the survey for 2021 which had a response rate of 27 per cent.

Patients gave their feedback between January 10 and April 11 this year, and could rate the practice as 'very good', 'fairly good', 'neither good nor poor', 'fairly poor' and 'very poor'.

Oldham practices received an overall good rating of 71 per cent which was only slightly behind the national figure for England which was 72 per cent.

However, the overall scores varied dramatically from practice to practice.

Coming in at the lowest rating is Kapur Family Care, scoring an average 'good' rating of just 37 per cent.

More patients scored the practice as 'very poor' than they did 'very good' or even 'fairly good'.

Last year, Werneth Medical Practice scored the lowest with a 40 per cent 'good rating'. This year, it scored 42 per cent.

Yet shooting to the top in the 2022 survey is St Mary's Medical Centre, which scored an 88 per cent overall good rating.

St Mary's Medical Centre on Rock Lane scored the best among patients in Oldham. Image by Google Maps.

Last year, Chadderton Medical Practice scored an impressive 98 per cent rating, but this year it has fallen to 85 per cent, though still ahead of the national average.

Oldham patients were also asked to score their practices based on the ease of booking an appointment and the ease of getting through to the surgery over the phone.

When it came to ease of booking an appointment, the worst by this measure was Kapur Family Care where only 23 per cent of patients had considered it easy to book an appointment.

However, the practice was shortly followed by Royton Medical Centre (24 per cent) and the Royton & Crompton Family Practice (26 per cent).

Both have recently come under fire from frustrated residents for this reason.

Although Royton & Crompton Family Practice was not the worst when it came to booking an appointment, it wasn't far behind. Image by Google Maps.

Meanwhile, the best-rated practice to book an appointment was Chadderton Medical Practice, where 82 per cent considered it easy to book an appointment.

When it came to calling up, Failsworth Group Practice was again at the bottom - now for two years in a row - with just eight per cent finding it easy to get through on the phone.

This compares to 91 per cent who had a positive experience getting through at St Chads Medical Practice.

Finally, when asked about the helpfulness of receptionists, Kapur Family Care again scored the worst with a 44 per cent rating.

Meanwhile, Woodlands Medical Practice scored the highest for having helpful receptionists at 93 per cent.

Mike Barker, Place Lead for Health and Care Integration Oldham at the GM Integrated Care Partnership said: “We recognise the frustration patients have felt when accessing primary care and we continue to support practices to ensure patients receive the care they require.

“Our latest data shows that the number of appointments offered by general practice in Oldham rose from 91,000 in April 2022 to 102,000 in May 22; there was also an increase in the number of GP appointments from 47,000 to 54,000.

“The number of appointments provided in May this year were higher than the number provided in all but one month in 2019, so it’s clear that general practice is working hard to provide more appointments than ever before.”

Mr Barker added: “It is really challenging right now for both patients and practitioners.

"Our practices continue to try to do the best for their patients under intense workload and workforce pressures.

"My team is working with Royton and Crompton Family Practice and Royton Medical Centre to see what more we can do to help address the issues our local community are experiencing.”

Take a look to see how your GP practice was rated and how it compares to last year: