NHS GP Patient Survey 2023: the 11 worst doctors’ surgeries to book an appointment at in Sefton

Patients said the process of booking an appointment at these practices was either ‘fairly poor’ or ‘very poor’

Sefton patients have mixed experiences when booking appointments with their local GP, patient feedback reveals.

The annual GP Patient Survey, produced by Ipsos on behalf of NHS England, asked people across the country what they think the care they receive from their GP surgery. One of the questions asked about their satisfaction with the overall appointment booking process.

Around half (54%) of respondents across England said that they had an overall ‘good’ experience of booking an appointment - a 1.8 percentage point drop from the previous year’s figures and the lowest percentage since the survey began in its current form in 2018.

More than a quarter of respondents (28%) said they had a ‘poor’ experience, the highest in six years, while 18% said it was ‘neither good nor poor’.

The survey took place between January and April 2023, with 760,000 patients responding - 29% of those invited to participate.

Patients were able to say whether their experience of booking an appointment was ‘very good’ or ‘fairly good’ or ‘very poor’ or ‘fairly poor’. For the purpose of this analysis the ‘very good’ and ‘fairly good’ responses have been combined, as have the ‘very poor’ and ‘fairly poor’ responses.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “We’re committed to increasing capacity so GP practices can offer more appointments from more staff than ever before.

“Appointments are already on the rise, and we recently announced £240 million of support to practices across the UK to embrace the latest technology, tackle the 8am rush and make it easier for patients to see their GP.”

Here we reveal the eleven GP surgeries that patients said were the worst for booking an appointment in the Sefton area.