North east London GP experiences 'among worst in England'

Patients living in Barking & Dagenham, Hackney, Havering, Newham, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, and the City of London made up a fraction of the 90,000 adults aged 16 or over who took part in the survey. 

Nationally, 63.7 per cent of the respondents said their experience of their GP practice was "good or very good". 

However for GP practices under the NHS North East Integrated Car Board, this figure fell to 55.6 per cent, with 31.6 per cent claiming their experience was "Poor or very poor". 

The national poll asked 90,000 people aged 16 and over about their experiences (Image: Lynne Cameron/PA Wire)These results were some of the lowest in the country. 

9.9 per cent of patients in north east London reported they were unable to contact their doctor, a receptionist, or another clinician at their registered practice on their last attempt. 

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A further 16.2 per cent were successful in contacting their GP, but it took at least two days. 

This is compared with the national average of 8.7 per cent who were unable to contact their practice, and 11.9 per cent who had to wait at least two days to contact their practice. 

12.3 per cent of north east London respondents said they had to wait at least 12 months for a hospital appointment or test, or to begin medical treatment with the NHS. 

A spokesperson for NHS North East London said: “We are always keen to learn from patient feedback so these results give us valuable insight in helping us to support our GP practices to be as good as they possibly can be as well as informing our primary care priorities overall.

We approached NHS North East London for a comment (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)"All of our practices across north east London continue to work exceptionally hard to meet the rising, and increasingly complex, needs of our patients, but we recognise there is room for improvement and are already working closely with GPs and their teams to address the issues raised.

"This includes investing in local diagnostic services so people can get quicker access to treatment for a variety of conditions, and supporting practices to improve or upgrade their telephony and appointment booking systems so patients can contact their surgery more easily when they need to."   

According to official data from the GP Appointment Dataset published by NHS Digital, GP practices in north east London are fulfilling one million appointments each month. 

Over half of these appear to take place on the same day, or the following day after they are booked.