THE GP surgeries offering the most and fewest face-to-face appointments have been revealed - but health chiefs warn official figures don't give the full picture.

When broken down, the data from NHS Digital shows which surgeries performed best in Southampton for in-person appointments in December 2022.

According to the NHS statistics, Cheviot Road Surgery in Millbrook performed best out of the city’s 26 practices as it boasted a 100% record, carrying out all of their 9,629 appointments in-person over the Christmas period.

Both Chartwell Green Surgery and Burgess Road Surgery accumulated 97% of their appointments face-to face, with all other appointments taking place either over the phone, online or home visits with a small percentage of how appointments took place being unknown.

READ MORE: Southampton's best and worst GP surgeries according to patients

On the opposite end of the scale – Alma Road Surgery was statistically the lowest ranked surgery in Southampton for face-to-face appointments with just 911 (30%) of their check-ups taking place at the surgery in December, and over 2,000 appointments occurring offsite.

Alma Road Surgery in particular was named and shamed in an article published by The Daily Mail, which ranks the practice as the 28th worst surgery in the country concerning the smallest number of face-to-face appointments.

Bitterne Park Surgery and Lordshill Health Centre rounded out the bottom three surgeries with the lowest tally of face-to-face appointments, accounting for 35% and 34% of their December check-ups.

READ MORE: Most and least oversubscribed GP surgeries in Southampton

None of the surgeries mentioned above provided a comment on the data when contacted by The Echo.

However, Dr Tim Cooper, Deputy Chief Medical Officer for Primary and Local Care, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board, warned these figures "should not be seen in isolation as an accurate reflection of the breadth of work happening within general practice".

In a statement, he said: “While this data does show the number of appointments practices in Southampton have provided, it doesn’t recognise the individual circumstances of each practice or how they are working to ensure patients continue to receive the best possible care.

“This includes working to address challenges seen nationally such as fewer people training to be a GP and difficulty recruiting into other roles.

“NHS Digital has been clear that this data is experimental and does not reflect factors such as quality of care, so should not be seen in isolation as an accurate reflection of the breadth of work happening within general practice.

“As common in cities such as Southampton, our practices help support a wide demographic of individuals including students and patients with more complex conditions, all who prefer to engage with healthcare in different ways.

“Anyone who needs to be seen face-to-face, either by a GP or another member of our fantastic multidisciplinary teams, will be offered this.

“However, when appropriate, many patients are happy with the convenience telephone or online consultation offers them in terms of saving time and ease of access.”

A message from the Editor

Thank you for reading this article on the Daily Echo. Your support means we can bring you the latest breaking news, exclusive Saints features and coverage - and much more.

Digital subscribers get unrestricted access to all of our stories, our dedicated app including e-version of the newspaper, and an advertising-light website.

If you want all the latest articles delivered straight to your inbox you can join the thousands of subscribers who are signed up to our newsletters.

They include our popular daily morning news briefing, breaking news, crime and court, and Southampton FC bulletins - plus business, heritage and our what's on newsletters.