Targeted national support offered to under-performing GP practices in Shropshire
Nine GP practices across Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin are being offered intensive national support as figures show patients continue to be unhappy with the service they are getting from some family doctors.
A meeting in Telford on Thursday (Sept 18) focused on the four practices out of the borough’s 11 that are lined up to receive practice level support to take an in-depth look at how they can improve.
An NHS official told the meeting of Telford & Wrekin’s health and wellbeing board that a gathering of GP practices was held at the start of this week. All those they are concerned about have signed up for the practice level support programme.
“The engagement that we had has been really positive,” the official told members of the board. “I feel very confident that we have that great relationship with our practices that we are able to speak with them about our concerns.”
The NHS STW official also said the commissioners are also monitoring access to dentistry and opticians.
The meeting was told that figures show access to GPs is ‘improving’ but six of the practices in the borough received below national average marks in a 2025 National GP Patient Survey.
A “few” of the six are recording patient satisfaction figures more than 10 per cent below a benchmark, and are under “targeted support”.
The report noted that across the borough Telford & Wrekin access to GPs has improved considerably.
But they are still lagging behind being considered ‘good’ by patients in a 2025 national survey. The survey asks for patient views on the “overall experience”; “contacting a GP” and “wait for an appointment”.
Committee members spoke of the performance of GP practices bringing down the reputation of the NHS as a whole with patients needing to be able to see improvements.
Councillor Andy Burford, who co-chairs the committee, said “we know who the practices are”.
He added that the issue of getting to see a GP is “one of the biggest things we hear on the doorstep.”
The individual practices were not named in the report but they were selected for intensive help based on variations in access, survey results and assurance indicators.
Surgery practice managers will get between help with workflow mapping, digital triage, demand and capacity modelling, telephony analytics and a review of the appointments ledger.
NHS leaders in Shropshire say they expect to see a reduced variation in appointments made on the same day, next day and over two weeks. They are also wanting to see an improvement in survey scores and to build “sustainable improvement capacity within practices.”
An NHS officer said: “I feel very confident we have that great relationship with providers.”
Councillor Burford said the feedback from residents is that “there are practices that are really struggling.
“Public perception goes beyond this and tends to colour people’s opinions of the NHS.”
Committee co-chair Simon Whitehouse, chief executive of NHS Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin, said he recognises the importance of GP access as “main defining issue in confidence in the NHS.”
Councillor Kelly Middleton, said survey results had only been received from 3.3 per cent of Telford’s population.
“This reflects what we are seeing on the ground that there is work to be done because improvements are not being felt,” she said.
