Doctors Near Me

Googling Doctors Near Me can show GP practices in your area.  Two easy to use free tools can show very quickly even more than ‘doctors near me’, they can show the best doctors near you.  This is important as not all medical practices offer the same quality of care and treatment.

The quality of care provided by doctors can vary from one location to another.  Just as some hotels in an area are better than others doctors within a town can be better or worse than others.  National organisations rate both NHS and private doctors in England.  Two great free tools can answer your question ‘where are doctors near me’ but also show ratings for these GP Practices.

    • To quickly find doctors near you enter your location below, or share your location using the map icon.

  • Click the ‘search’ button
  • The next page will list the 10 doctors nearest this location.
  • If you prefer to see a map of the GP practices closest to you then click the ‘see results on a map’ link about a third of the way down the page.
  • Using the map or the list names highlights the closest doctors to your location and provides a rating based on patient feedback.
  • Choosing a GP Practice should be based on more than its location, further detail about how to compare health centres is provided below.

Where are the Best Doctors Near Me?

Instead of simply searching for ‘doctors near me’ the question that should be asked is – where are the best doctors near me.  Searching for medical facilities close to your current location as detailed above is a very limited way to make an important decision.

We will show you a very quick way of comparing and finding where the best doctors near you are, for free.  This information is available for the whole of England and includes detail and ratings for NHS and private providers.

The map facility already highlighted shows where you can get care and treatment locally.  At a glance you can also see how patients have rated the care they have received, using a five star system.  This may be based on very limited feedback, but can be one element of avoiding the worst doctors or GP Practices.

  • Clicking on any location on the map will expand the information provided on the surgery further.
  • This includes showing a national rating comparing how many patients would recommend the surgery.
  • The rating is out of a hundred, with one hundred being the best.
  • The worst practices are shown with an exclamation mark, the best with a tick and those in the middle are marked as ‘ok’.
  • This information is also shown under the list view, in the ‘would recommend the surgery’ column, within the ‘key facts’ topic.
  • The example below explains this process further.

How to Find Doctors Near You: an example

The example comparing ratings for doctors near you shows 9 out of 10 patients would recommend one surgery, but a practice close by is only recommended by 4 out of 10 patients.  This example compares ratings for doctors near you if entering the London post code NW1 2LS.

10 results are shown on the page.  The 10 step process explains how you can easily compare and find ratings for the best GP Practices in your area.

  1. Results show how many patients ‘would recommend the surgery’ to others people, or potential patients.
  2. 4 of the 10 GP Practices are ranked ‘among the worst’ in the country (marked with an exclamation mark).
  3. 5 of the 10 health centres compared are rated in the middle range when compared to practices in England as a whole. These are shown with an ‘ok’.
  4. 1 doctor’s surgery has a tick, indicating it is ranked amongst the best in England as a whole. This heath centre performs better than the other 9 on the page.
  5. The lowest rated practice has a recommendation score of 43%. This means that only 4 out of every 10 patients asked would recommend their surgery to other people.
  6. The top rated surgery has a score of 89%. Nearly 9 out of 10 patients would recommend their surgery at this practice.  This rating is twice as high as the lowest scoring health centre.
  7. These ratings are not just meaningless percentages. They represent how many patients would recommend the surgery to others.  Patients experience the care and treatment provided and are well placed to review care and treatment.
  8. Patients visit the GP, talk to the receptionist, try and get an appointment, understand the opening times and can use all of this information to rate the service they have received.
  9. The two practices highlighted in this example were both around half a mile from the NW12LS postcode. Simply searching for ‘doctors near me’ may have shown the GP Practice where only 4 out of 10 patients would recommend the surgery to others.
  10. Taking a few minutes to search for the best doctors near you could mean much better health care can be found in the same area.

In a short space of time it is possible to find not just doctors near you, but also start to rate and compare showing where the Best Doctors near you are.  Following the same procedure to compare, rate and review medical practices in your area may be beneficial.

The information in this example is based on a national survey of GP patients, it is published by the NHS in England, with updates provided twice a year.  Details correct at the time of writing, April 2017.

The Best Rated Doctors Near Me

Patient recommendations are important when judging a GP Practice, an additional factor when comparing options is to see the best rated doctors near me – as rated by the Department for Health..  Health services in England are regulated by the Care Quality Commission, part of the Department for Health.  The NHS helpfully publishes these ratings so you can compare and find the best rate GP Practices in your area.

The CQC rate all health centres in England as either:

  • Outstanding
  • Good
  • Requires improvement
  • Inadequate

Finding ratings for your area is free and easy, just follow the 5 steps below.

  1. Go to the BestDoctorsNearMe.co.uk Best GP in my Town page
  2. Keep the ‘metric group’ as ‘overall rating from the Care Quality Commission’
  3. Enter the town or post code you are interested in, into the ‘in a location’ box.
  4. In the box to the right of this, choose 5 miles. This means that practices close by will be displayed.
  5. Click ‘update results’

The ratings have been awarded since 2014.  The CQC are specifically interested in how safe, effective, caring, responsive to patients needs and well led each surgery is.  The CQC inspect surgeries, interview staff and review NHS information about each site.  This then is used to make a judgement.  The example below shows how this information can be used to find the best rated doctors near you.

Example of Finding the Best Rated Doctors Near You

This example uses the techniques explained above to try and find the best rated doctors in the Dewsbury area of Leeds.  It shows how a GP Practice with an ‘Inadequate’ rating is within a mile and a half of a practice rated as ‘Outstanding’.  Finding the best rated doctors near you can be achieved in the following 7 steps.  These steps are correct as at April 2017 and were achieved by going to the BestDoctorsNearMe.co.uk Best GP in my Town page and entering ‘Dewsbury’ into the location field.

  1. Eight of the first 10 GP Practices listed were rated as ‘Good’ by the CQC.
  2. One was unrated at the time of publication (April 2017).
  3. One medical centre had an ‘Inadequate’ rating.
  4. Further information from the CQC detailed that this practice was not Safe or Effective, two key criteria when seeking medical help.
  5. The next 10 results were viewed, by scrolling to the bottom of the page and choosing ‘page 2’.
  6. One practice on this page was rated ‘Outstanding’. The surgery was located within 1.5 miles of Dewsbury centre.
  7. This practice had been rated significantly better than others in the local neighbourhood. A good indicator that patients would benefit from better care and treatment.

Within the confined Dewsbury area examples were found highlighting the big difference in standards of care offered from medical practitioners.  As a patient searching for ‘doctors near me’ this information would not be available.  Spending a few minutes searching on National Health Service published information can help to identify the best medical care available in your area.  This may be very important when you rely on the help and advice of a doctor in a time of need.

Comparing Doctors in Your Area

There are other more specific methods for comparing doctors in your area.  The examples above show how to compare surgeries on a few key criteria – patient reviews and CQC inspections.  We all have individual needs and specific requirements from our health care. If you are a new mother, you may be interested in medical practices that are rated highly for the care they offer babies.  The BestDoctorsNearMe.co.uk website explains ratings and reviews that should be considered if you are the mother of a young child.

Patients aged over 65, or those who suffer from long term conditions such as COPD, heart disease, or be at increased of cancer or stroke will have different considerations when choosing a doctor.  Potential methods for finding the best doctors near your home or work are explained in separate publications.

It is worth investing a few minutes to compare reviews of ratings for health care providers near your home, to ensure you and your family receive the best care and attention available.

Summary: Finding Doctors Near You

A simple google search for doctors near me will provide addresses for local practices.  Most people don’t choose a hotel based solely on location.  Reviews from guests and star ratings normally form part of this decision.  Just like there are good and bad hotels, offering the best and worst service, the quality of care and treatment provided by GP Surgeries also varies.  When choosing a medical practice it is important to consider a range of factors, not just location.  As we have shown it takes just a few minutes to compare GP Practices within an area.

Searching doctors in your area is easy.  It only takes a few more minutes to understand how the patients of local surgeries rate the medical care they receive.  These reviews and ratings are valuable information and provided free of charge by the NHS in England and published on the BestDoctorsNearMe.co.uk website.

In addition to the recommendations offered by patients, information is also easily accessible enabling you to compare how the Department of Health’s CQC rate care provided.  The examples show how within a mile radius GP Practices can vary between Outstanding and Requires Improvement or Inadequate or have a very high patient recommendation level and a very low recommendation level.

Choosing the closest doctor to your home or work, without comparing patient or CQC reviews may not be advisable.  The care and treatment provided by your local medical practice is important.  Spending a few minutes of your time comparing clinical options locally may be time well spent.

Thanks to the NHS Choices website for the great information included in this tool. The Department for Health owns the NHS Choices website, with information provided by NHS Digital. This information is made available under the Open Government Licence (OGL).