I WAS disappointed to read your article, featuring the “worst” GP surgeries in Dorset, particularly as you have in the past published a letter outlining the difficulties general practice faces in our area.

As the senior partner of one of the practices you have highlighted as being the “worst”' in Dorset, I feel it’s important to clarify a few points.

The data you chose to report on was weighted. This does a disservice for smaller practice populations as one or two respondents in an under-represented surveyed group can greatly skew the data. Similarly, questions like "How satisfied are you with the general practice appointment times that are available to you?" chose to assume that the neutral response of “neither satisfied nor dissatisfied” meant our patients were dissatisfied.

Some questions surveyed were factual, and not a measure of satisfaction. "How long after your appointment time did you wait to see or speak to a healthcare professional?", for example, does not ask whether patients are prepared to wait a little longer, understanding that there are times someone might need a longer time with their clinician.

None of these points are excuses. We as a practice take great care to respond to feedback when we receive it, and we aren't afraid to make changes where we feel this would make our patients’ or our staff members’ lives better. No GP or surgery staff member goes to work wanting to do a bad job, or to make people unhappy. We want people to leave us feeling we have helped, and proud of us for the service we've offered them. Prior to the GP survey results being released, we have already made changes to the way we operate in response to our patients’ feedback.

Reporting one practice as being better or worse than another on the basis of a limited survey that wouldn’t meet the rigorous standards required for peer reviewed publication can be damaging to trust between people and their surgery, who are doing their best to help. At the very least it is damaging to staff morale in a time where recruitment and retention of staff is already difficult.

It might be more helpful to report on the stresses modern general practice faces. You would be more than welcome to spend some time in our practice, to observe at first-hand how challenging things are for us at present.

DR DOMINIC HENNESSY, senior partner, West Moors Group Practice