Find a GP near me
Thinking of changing GP surgery? Enter a postcode and we’ll compare the nearest practices side by side on the things patients care about — how patients rate them, how easy they are to get through to, waits, continuity, same-day appointments, how stretched they are — and how well they look after long-term conditions and prevent illness. All from published NHS data.
How to read this
New to this? Read the guide: How to choose a GP surgery — what the numbers can tell you, and what they can’t.
The ranking
Practices whose catchment covers your postcode come first. Within that, they are ordered by the Arjus score: how many percentage points above or below the England average a practice is, averaged within each of three areas — experience & access, long-term conditions and prevention — and then combined as 50% experience & access, 25% long-term conditions, 25% prevention — so clinical care is half the score and a practice can’t top the list on friendliness alone, but nor can three strong prevention figures outweigh what patients actually experience. Only the green/red columns count, any measure based on fewer than 30 people is left out, each measure is capped at ±20 points, and distance is not included. Hover a score to see the three area scores. A practice needs at least five measures to be scored; the rest are listed last. Click Distance to re-sort by how close they are.
Start with what matters to you
If you mostly need to get through quickly when something is wrong, weight easy to get through by phone, callers who hung up, waited over 5 min and same-day appointments. If you’d rather contact the practice online, look at online requests per 1,000 patients and using the NHS App. If you have a long-term condition and want to see the same person, weight sees preferred GP and confidence & trust. Overall experience is the best single summary.
Clinical care
The purple and green columns are about the medicine, not the front desk. Long-term conditions shows how many patients with high blood pressure or diabetes are actually at target, how many with atrial fibrillation are protected against stroke, and whether people with dementia get a yearly review. Prevention shows whether high-risk patients are on statins, whether women are screened for cervical cancer and whether toddlers are vaccinated. Each cell also shows how many patients it is based on — small numbers swing a percentage a lot.
Where the numbers come from
The survey columns are the national GP Patient Survey (sent to a sample of each practice’s patients every year — a “small sample” note means fewer than 30 people answered). Would recommend is the monthly Friends & Family Test. The two phone-queue columns come from the practice’s own phone system (not every supplier reports). Same-day and face-to-face come from every appointment the practice records. Patients per GP compares list size with the practice’s full-time-equivalent GPs. Clinical columns come from the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF, the annual record of care every practice submits — we count every patient on the register, not just those the practice chose to include), CVDPREVENT and the UKHSA COVER vaccination programme.
Catchment areas
Every practice registers patients from a boundary it sets in its NHS contract. We check your postcode against the published boundaries and list the practices that cover your postcode first; nearby practices whose boundary doesn’t include you are still shown, marked outside published catchment, because some register out-of-area patients if you ask. The boundary data is the NHS England practice-boundary collection and can lag a merger or a boundary change — the practice’s NHS page has the current one.
What it can’t tell you
Whether the practice is accepting new patients, its opening hours, or what it feels like to walk in — check its NHS website page (the link on each row), and if you can, ask neighbours.
CQC rating
The regulator’s latest overall judgement (Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement, Inadequate) with the date it was published — click it for the report. Treat it as a floor, not a ranking: about 88% of practices are Good, and many haven’t been re-inspected for five years or more (shown in amber), so the columns to the right are usually a more current picture. The rating isn’t part of the Arjus score, but an Inadequate practice is never the top pick.
Changing GP surgery in England
- You can register with any GP surgery whose catchment area covers your address. Some also accept patients from outside their area.
- You don’t need to tell your current surgery, give a reason, or have proof of address or ID (though it helps). Your records transfer automatically.
- A surgery can only refuse you if its list is closed or it has another reasonable ground — it must tell you in writing.
- Most surgeries let you register online through the NHS “Register with a GP surgery” service in about 15 minutes.
- Repeat prescriptions and referrals carry on — but if you’re mid-way through a referral or on a hospital waiting list, mention it when you register.
Common questions about choosing a GP
Which GP surgery near me is best?
There isn’t a single best surgery, but published NHS data lets you compare them. Enter your postcode above to see the practices that cover your address side by side on patient experience, phone access, waits, continuity, same-day appointments, how stretched they are, how well they manage long-term conditions, prevention and their CQC rating — each against the England average.
Can I change my GP surgery without giving a reason?
Yes. In England you can register with any surgery whose catchment covers your address. You don’t need to tell your current surgery, give a reason, or show proof of address or ID (though it helps). Your records transfer automatically. A surgery can only refuse you if its list is closed or it has another reasonable ground, and must tell you in writing.
How do I register with a new GP surgery?
Most surgeries let you register online through the NHS “Register with a GP surgery” service in about 15 minutes, or you can fill in a GMS1 form at the surgery. If you’re mid-way through a hospital referral or on a waiting list, mention it when you register.
What is a catchment area, and can I register outside it?
The boundary a surgery sets in its NHS contract for the addresses it registers. This page checks your postcode against the published boundaries and lists the surgeries that cover you first. Some also register out-of-area patients if you ask, so nearby surgeries whose boundary doesn’t include you are still shown, marked outside published catchment.
How do I find out if a surgery is accepting new patients?
Check the surgery’s page on the NHS website (the link on every row) or ring them. Whether a list is open changes month to month, so it isn’t in the published data this page uses.
Where does the data come from?
All published NHS data at practice level: the GP Patient Survey, Friends and Family Test, Appointments in General Practice, Cloud-Based Telephony and Online Consultation submissions, GP Workforce, Patients Registered, NHS App uptake, QOF, CVDPREVENT, UKHSA COVER and CQC ratings. No patient-level data, and your postcode isn’t stored. Links to each source are below.