DoH's 'rate your practice' website goes live

By Tom Ireland, 14 October 2009

The DoH has revealed the 'scorecard' that patients will use to rate GP practices online.

From today, patients will be able to publish comments online about their practice on four topics:

  • How easy it to get an a appointment
  • How highly they recommend the practice
  • How staff treated them
  • How involved they felt in decisions about their care

The site will also hold information on the opening times and facilities of all of England's 8,300 practices.

Feedback will be monitored and any abuse or naming of staff will not be posted, said the DoH. 

But GPC chairman Dr Laurence Buckman said the site will not create an accurate picture of the quality of practices.

‘Unless a significant number of comments are generated - good or bad - it will be impossible to build up a reliable and accurate picture of the practice and its quality.

‘Furthermore, our highest users, the elderly and the long-term sick, are the least likely to post comments,' he said.

Launching the tool, health minister Mike O'Brien said it would enable patients to make an informed choice which GP practice to register with.

Earlier this month GP newspaper launched a Rate Your PCT scorecard to give you the chance to have your say about the quality of NHS management you encounter.

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