A CONTROVERSIAL new online ratings system which allows patients to give their GP surgery in Worcestershire a score out of 10 has gone live.

The Government say the system which went online on Thursday on the NHS Choices website will allow patients to make informed choices but a leading Worcestershire GPs has condemned the scheme as “unscientific” and “a waste of money”.

Information on 8,000 GP practices in England was published yesterday based on information such as how convenient it is to get an appointment, length of time spent waiting in reception, opening hours and whether doctors or nurses are good at explaining things to patients.

Each GP surgery gets a score out of 10 based on patient feedback which will help patients to choose which surgery to register with.

However, Dr Simon Parkinson, secretary of the Worcestershire Local Medical Committee and a Redditch GP, said Worcestershire GPs were to demand the NHS Choices website which displays the data be shut down because it is “unfit for purpose” and “a waste of scarce NHS resources” during the BMA annual representative meeting in Bournemouth later this month.

Dr Parkinson said the website, which has displayed other information and comments in the past, allowed people with a grievance to make personal attacks on staff in the same way people can criticise hotels and restaurants on the website Tripadvisor.

He said: “We had a very nasty unpleasant complaint and we did get them [NHS Choices] to take it off but it wasn’t easy and it was there for a while.”

Dr Parkinson said he knew of a practice in Worcestershire where someone had made personal remarks about a member of staff which had left them very upset.

He said: “The comment is there forever and you think, ‘Is that really fair?’ I think it’s a complete waste of money.

"Hardly anyone looks at it and the people who do usually do so because they want to have a go at somebody so it’s very negative.”

Dr Parkinson questioned how much the website was actually used and said that most people learned about which GP practice was the best through word of mouth, not a website.

But health minister Lord Howe said: “This is another step forward in giving people more choice.

"Patients will now be able to see exactly what the experience of being a patient at each GP surgery is like.”

The move has also been welcomed by Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patient Association.

How they rate (out of 10)

• Worcester Walk-In And Health Centre - 8.4
• Dr M H Sorensen & Partners (Shrubbery Avenue ) - 7.8
• Dr W D Norton & Partners (Albany House Surgery) - 7.6
• Dr K Laidlaw And Partners (Thorneloe Lodge Surgery) - 7.6
• Spring Gardens Group Medical Practice - 7.4
• Dr Whitmore & Partners (St Martin’s Gate Surgery) - 7.4
• Dr D M Smith & Partners (Haresfield House) - 7.4
• Dr Whitmore & Partners (The Surgery, St Peter’s) - 7.4
• Dr D M Smith & Partners (The Surgery, Kempsey) - 7.4
• Dr M G Cullen & Partners (Elbury Moor Medical Centre) - 7.2
• St John’s House Surgery - 7.1
• Severn Valley Medical Practice - 7
• Severn Valley Medical Practice (Lyppard Grange) – 7