ANGRY patients were this week calling for drastic improvements at Minehead Medical Centre after a controversial NHS report claimed that it is providing the lowest number of face-to-face GP consultations in West Somerset.

The first of a series of new reports by NHS Digital - which is providing monthly data on all English general practices for October - claimed that the Minehead Medical Centre only managed to give a face-to-face consultation to 18 per cent of patients who asked for one.

This compared with 81 per cent at the Williton practice, 70 per cent at Dunster and 47 per cent at both Dulverton and Wiveliscombe. But the Minehead practice has hit back, saying that the information is incorrect.

It has quoted a statement from Dr Jeremy Imms, associate director of primary care at NHS Somerset, claiming that the statistics were flawed.

He said that inaccuracies, caused by computer problems, had shown that a number of practices were seeing very few patients face-to-face when in fact they were performing well above average.

Minehead has had one GP practice since Irnham Lodge merged with neighbouring Harley House in 2019 and closed last year. Before the merger the two practices had six GPs. Currently there is one full-time and four part-time doctors.

In July this year, the practice became the first in the UK to become an employment ownership trust under a government scheme to encourage John Lewis style employee ownership.

Recent ratings and reviews from patients of Minehead Medical Centre, monitored by the NHS, included: “I am not sure why practices like this receive any funding from the NHS as they make it practically impossible to get an appointment.”

One patient said: “Every time I have a problem I put it off because I dread going through the GP’s process. I can’t remember the last time I was actually helped with a problem I phoned about.”

Another added: “You are put on a telephone queuing system but when you get to number one you never get answered.” Another Minehead patient commented: “Unless you’re dying, they don’t care. Unless you’re urgent, they tell you to call back the next day.”

Sally Priddy, chair of Dunster and Porlock Patient Participation group, said that while the situation at Minehead was of grave concern, there was a shortage of doctors throughout West Somerset who were available to give face-to-face appointments.

She said: “What is needed is a huge recruitment drive to try to get good doctors here. It is difficult to attract doctors with young families because they want to send their children to private/independent schools which are in and around bigger towns.

“So we are looking for middle-aged doctors who are ready to move to a beautiful area where they can take advantage of the countryside to keep fit.”

This week patients took to social media to air their dissatisfaction with the practice. Keith Johnson said: “Minehead Medical Centre has gone rapidly downhill in recent years and the service now is nothing short of appalling.”

Lynn Parry said: “I don’t think there are many doctors left in MMC and the nurses, paramedics and health care assistants are taking the load and have done very well.

Claire Greenhill added: “Surely you would think that surgeries should only have the patients they can care for. No wonder people are unhappy. How many health issues have been missed?”

Claiming that there was a mismatch between locally held data and what has been published nationally, a Minehead Medical Centre spokesperson added: “ During October, MMC delivered 1,580 flu vaccinations via walk-in clinics which would not have been recorded as face-to-face appointments and therefore not included in the access data which will have been recorded by other practices.

“Minehead Medical Centre delivered the highest number of same-day appointments, which is very positive news. I hope this highlights the incredibly high workload that all practices continue to face. Despite flawed data, this does shed a positive light on just how many patients are being supported by their GP surgeries across West Somerset.

“Across all four practices we had clinical contact with about 23,000 of our approximately 35,000 registered patients in the four weeks of October.”