Published: Friday, 30th July, 2010 9:30am

Doctors given clean bill of health

DOCTORS in the Borders have been given a clean bill of health by their patients.

Locals rate the care they receive from GPs as excellent, giving them an overall score of 94 per cent - higher than the national average of 90 per cent.

This result was revealed in the Better Together Scottish GP Patient Experience Survey, the first of survey of its kind, which contributed to the publication of the first national report on the quality of health care experienced by those using General Practitioner services in all 14 NHS Boards.

The survey was commissioned by the Scottish Government and was sent to a random sample of more than 185,000 people who were registered as GP patients in Scotland in October 2009.

The questionnaire asked patients about their experience of accessing their GP practice, making an appointment, visiting reception, seeing a nurse/doctor, receiving prescribed medicines and care provided overall by the practice.

And Border practices received a higher score than the national average in all of the 13 topics featured.

Ralph Roberts, Chief Operating Office for NHS Borders said: "The survey provides us with a range of information on the quality of healthcare experienced by patients in GPs practices across the Borders.

"It provides practices with feedback on their patients' experiences of service, relative to other practices in Scotland, as well as identifying areas of best practice and areas for improvement.

"The findings will help our practices improve the quality of healthcare offered across the Borders by allowing us to focus on the areas people tell us are important to them as well as those where we could do better."