SWINDON’S GP surgeries are among the worst in England, according to patients.

The town’s medical centres finished 186th out of 191 areas in England in the NHS Patient Survey 2019.

The survey asked residents for their views on their doctors’ surgeries across a range of different categories.

And there has been a dramatic fall in approval rates since last year.

While Swindon CCG averaged an overall ‘good’ score of 83 per cent last year, it has sunk to 74 per cent in 2019.

That means the town’s GPs are now rated lower than the national average of 83 per cent and only five areas in England performed worse.

Swindon finished 186th, in front of Redbridge, Barking & Dagenham, West Birmingham, Luton and Bradford.

FULL LIST: Best and worst GP surgeries in Swindon

READ MORE: Patients vent fury at IMH shambles

The CCG has been dogged by a horrendous contract with Manchester-based company IMH, which took over the running of back office functions and phone systems at five Swindon surgeries.

This led to hundreds of complaints from patients who had trouble getting through on the phone.

As a result, those attending the five surgeries – Eldene, Moredon, Phoenix, Taw Hill and Abbey Meads – did not hold back in their criticism when surveyed.

All five finished near the bottom of the satisfaction list, and were ranked worst for experience of making appointments and phone contact.

Eldene is rated bottom in almost all categories and the worst in Swindon for patients ‘overall experience’ at just 50 per cent.

Kate Linnegar, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for North Swindon, has led protests on the issues faced by patients since the IMH fiasco began last autumn – and does not blame the new rankings on practice staff.

She said: “Looking at the report it shows Eldene failed its patients where IMH were responsible for delivering services, for example getting through on the phone and getting appointments.

“Patients were satisfied that they received a good service when they actually managed to see someone. Private companies like IMH putting profit before people have no place in our NHS. They fail and harm patients.”

South Swindon MP and new justice secretary Robert Buckland is hopeful things will improve now IMH has announced its withdrawal from primary care in the town.

He said: “Eldene Surgery has dedicated GPs and staff but has experienced problems as a result of the IMH issue.

“I have asked CCG to provide extra support for the surgery as the IMH contract ends and am working to help ensure that the necessary funding is provided.”

What about the best GP surgeries for appointments?

At the other end of the scale, Elm Tree Surgery in Shrivenham scored 98 per cent satisfaction rate for appointment making, while 84 per cent of patients at The Lawn Medical Centre were happy, and 82 per cent at Kingswood.

Sian Edwards, a doctor and partner of Elm Tree Surgery, said: “We are very pleased to have the result that patients are happy with the service that we provide.”

Getting in touch with your doctor

Being stuck on hold while trying to call your doctor is far from uncommon, but it seems it is easier to get through to some surgeries than others.

And in fact, some patients say they haven’t been able to get through at all.

The results for how easy it was to get through to doctors on the phone were among the worst in the survey for the IMH-run centres.

Only 12.5 per cent of patients at Eldene said it was easy to get through to the practice on the phone.

At Mordeon, it was 18.6 per cent, Abbey Meads scored 23.6 per cent in this category, and Taw Hill 22.1.

Once again, Elm Tree came out on top with 94.7 per cent.

Swindon CCG’s response

The Swindon Clinical Commission Group, the body responsible for healthcare in the town, sounded an upbeat note in response to the survey while acknowledging the problems its contract with IMH had caused.

It said: “The CCG is always very interested to see the results of the national GP Patient Survey run by IPSOS MORI on behalf of NHS England, which takes place each year.

“This survey takes into account the experiences patients have from their surgeries and questions range from the ease with which patients can contact their surgery for an appointment through to whether patients felt their needs were met at their last appointment.

“The results tell us that we are in line with the national average in providing support from our local services to manage health conditions and this result has remained the same as last year (both years results were 77 per cent).

“We are aware that the results also show that people are experiencing difficulties in accessing GP appointments.

“We absolutely recognise that this is an issue particularly within the IMH practices and this reflects what we already know through the complaints and concerns which have been raised by patients locally and which we are prioritising in our work with practices.

“As we move forward with the future arrangements of these practices, we will continue to focus on how we improve patient experience in accessing GP services.

“Interestingly, the results also show what other services people tried if they couldn’t get a GP appointment. We can see that we are above average for people attending another NHS Service or another GP practice and also that we have less people attending A&E compared with the national results.”