The Department of Health has launched a controversial online rating service to let patients rate and compare GP practices via its flagship website, NHS Choices.
Patients can upload comments on how easy it is to get an appointment at a particular practice, how highly they would recommend the practice, how well patients are treated by staff and if they feel involved in decisions about their care.
The DH said the ratings service would give patients all the information they need to choose between England’s 8,300 practices, following the recent announcement that practice boundaries are to be scrapped.
Health minister Mike O’Brien added: “This new tool allows every single GP practice in the country to see the patient’s view on what they are doing well and what needs to be improved.
"It will help drive up quality across the board, and is another step in ensuring we have a modern NHS which reflects the needs of the patient.”
The BMA said it was concerned that patients would not get an accurate picture of practice quality from the ratings service.
Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA’s General Practitioner Committee, said surveys and patient participation groups were a more effective way of getting patient feedback because comments posted on the site would always be from a self-selected sample.
He added: “Unless a significant number of comments are generated – good or bad – it will be impossible to build up a reliable and accurate picture of the practice and its quality.
"Furthermore, our highest users, the elderly and the long-term sick, who are arguably in the best position to give useful feedback to other patients, are the least likely to post comments, as research shows they have the lowest rate of accessibility to the internet.”
The BMA said it had worked with the DH to develop the service after its creation was announced in December 2008 to ensure the system was as fair as possible and not open to abuse.
Dr Buckman added: “We are pleased that many of our initial concerns, such as the potential for malicious postings or the ability to post a right of reply, have been allayed. However, we remain to be convinced how much real value this will have for patients.”
The DH said the GP practice rating service was similar to its hospital comparison service launched this summer. It also claimed the tool would enable patients to find key information in one place, such as opening times and additional facilities offered by the GP practice.
The site was welcomed by Dr Peter Swinyard, chairman of the Family Doctors’ Association, who said: “"The Family Doctor Association supports this initiative and believes that patient feedback on GP services is an effective way of driving up the standards of primary care even further."