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So how good is your doctor?

ONE in five GP surgeries across Stockport have failed to reach expectations for patient care, the Stockport Express can exclusively reveal.

In the first year of published government statistics on family doctors’ performance, local practices overall received better scores than many in neighbouring boroughs, but 11 out of 55 surgeries here fell below the national average.

Each practice in the borough was evaluated by the Department of Health to measure how they performed on patient diagnosis, management of conditions, record keeping, communication and overall patient experience.

Incentive

The figures are part of the new Quality and Outcomes Framework Assessment, which offers a cash incentive to surgeries meeting or exceeding the national average.

Dennis Couniacis from Stockport PCT patient forum, defended those surgeries failing to hit targets, commenting: “The picture is quite complex but the assessment applies a common standard across the board.”

And referring to three Stockport surgeries which had fallen drastically short, he added: “It may not be the duty of care, but their ability to provide certain health care provisions due to constraints such as size of premises.”