GP practices which saw fewer than half patients are named

QUARTER OF COUNTY PEOPLE MISSED OUT ON FACE-TO-FACE APPOINTMENTS IN JANUARY

ELEVEN GP surgeries in Leicestershire saw fewer than half of their patients face-to-face in January.

New figures also show a quarter of people in the county missed out on seeing their doctor in person in the first month of this year.

The statistics from NHS data focus on the number of GP appointments booked in Leicestershire in January. It shows there were 620,230 appointments made at practices around the county, but 25 per cent of these were not ultimately held face-to-face.

That data has also revealed which GP surgeries were worst for failing to provide in-person appointments.

Some 11 in Leicestershire have been identified as having fewer than 50 per cent of its appointments face-to-face.

The worst performing GP surgery is in Barwell where the town’s Barwell and Hollycroft Medical

Centre saw just 29.5 per cent of its patients face-to-face in January.

It is the worst performing GP surgery that month, with the Leicester City Assist Practice in East Bond Street next with just 38.1 per cent of its appointments held in person.

Two Aylestone surgeries also form part of the poorer performing 11 on the list. Aylestone Health Centre recorded just 44.2 per cent of its appointments in person.

The Surgery@Aylestone fared slightly better with 48.8 per cent held face-to-face. Others on the list include Broom Leys Surgery in Coalville which saw just 43.6 per cent of its GP appointments held in person.

Despite these 11 surgeries missing out on many in-person appointments, the NHS data makes clear the majority did not miss out.

In all, of the 620,230 Leicestershire appointments made in January, 466,763 were held in person that’s the equivalent of 75 per cent.

The figure puts Leicestershire above the national average of 69 per cent. Here, the data revealed there were 20.4 million patients in January who saw their GP in person - that is out of a possible 29.4 million.

Some surgeries in England fared considerably worse in the data.

The NHS found there were five practices which saw fewer than one in five patients face-to-face, with the worst performing found to be London’s Babylon GP At Hand Birmingham practice where just 4.5 per cent of appointments were held in person.