Scotland's top GP surgeries have been revealed in new figures by Reach Data Unit.
Despite this year’s Health and Care Experience Survey revealing a big decrease in satisfaction from patients, there are still many surgeries getting glowing feedback from those that use them.
Braemar Health Clinic, in Aberdeenshire, is the highest ranked surgery in Scotland, according to analysis by the Reach Data Unit. Of those surveyed, 100% said they would rate the care provided by the practice as excellent or good.
As well as this 100% of those surveyed said the last time they had need to see or speak to a doctor or nurse quite urgently they were able to within two working days, and 100% saying they had been treated with compassion and understanding at their last appointment.
Scotland's top ranked surgeries:
Name // Postcode // Health Board // Rank (out of 889) // % rating the care provided as excellent or good
Braemar Health Clinic // Grampian // AB35 5WR // 1 // 100%
Tiree Medical Practice // Highland // PA77 6UN // 2 // 97.85%
Greenlaw Surgery // Borders // TD10 6XJ // 3 // 100%
Dunbeath Surgery // Highland // KW6 6EZ // 3 // 100%
Strathdon Medical Centre // Grampian // AB36 8XB // 5 // 99.34%
Lochcarron Medical Partnership // Highland // IV54 8YD // 6 // 99.29%
Easdale Medical Practice // Highland // PA34 4TL // 7 // 99.29%
Dr David F Troup & Partner // Highland // G83 7AE // 8 // 96.89%
South Harris Medical Practice // Western Isles // HS5 3UA // 9 // 98.7%
Stromness Surgery // Orkney // KW16 3AD // 10 // 98.12%
Across Scotland, patients are much less happy with their GPs than in previous years. The proportion who said the care provided by their practice was excellent or good dropped from 79% in 2019/20 to 67% in 2021/22.
While this was the biggest drop seen since the survey started, satisfaction has been falling from 90% in 2009/10. One in five people surveyed described their experiences as poor or very poor.
Of those surveyed, 85% said when they needed an appointment quite urgently, they were able to speak to or see a doctor or nurse within two working days (down slightly from 86% in 2019/20), with 48% saying they were able to get a doctors' appointment three or more working days in advance at their practice. In the 2021/22 survey, three-quarters (75%) of patients said it was easy to contact their GP practice in the way they preferred.
This was down from 86% in 2019/2, with those saying it was very easy dropping from 47% to 34%. Just over two thirds of people (67%) rated the quality of information from receptionists positively (excellent or good), down from 76% in 2019/20.
Asked about their last appointment, a large majority of patients were happy with how they were treated. Among those polled, 83% said they were treated with compassion and understanding, 86% said they were listened to, and 62% said staff helped them feel in control of their treatment or care.
The league table is based on the latest findings from the Health and Care Experience Survey - which sees surveys sent out randomly to people registered at Scottish GP practices. A total of 537,924 survey packs were sent out and 130,352 were returned giving a response rate of 24%.
The Reach Data Unit has crunched the numbers in seven key areas: whether people can urgently speak to a nurse or doctor, whether they can make appointment in advance, the quality of information from receptionists, whether they were listened to in their appointment, whether they were treated with compassion and understanding, whether they were helped to feel in control of treatment, as well as an overall rating of care at their GP practice. Each surgery was given a rank for its performance in each of these areas.
Those category rankings were then added up to give an overall ranking. Surgeries that saw less than 20 responses were excluded on the basis that the sample was too small to draw reliable conclusions.
You can find out how your surgery ranks using our interactive widget below;
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