The best and worst GP practices in St Helens, as voted for by patients, have been revealed.

The GP Patient Survey 2021 asked residents for their views on their doctors' surgeries across a range of different areas.

In the main 'overall experience' category, Kenneth MacRae Medical Centre was ranked the highest in the borough, with 100% of patients who completed the survey ranking it as 'good'.

The lowest performing surgery in this key metric was Billinge Medical Practice, with only 53% of responses ranking the surgery as 'good'.

St Helens' GP practices as a whole received a blended overall experience rating of 80% 'good' - 3% below the national average of 83%, but two percentage points higher than the score they received last year.

Other high scoring surgeries include Rainhill Village Surgery (97%), and Bethany Medical Centre (93%). Dr Rahil's Surgery, Garswood Surgery, Rainford Health Centre and Hall Street Medical Centre all scored 92%.

But out of 33 GP Practices in St Helens, 17 delivered an overall score below the national average - just over half of the St Helens CCG GP surgeries in operation.

Another area measured included how easy residents found it to make an appointment at their practice.

64% of St Helens patients described the overall process as 'good' - five percentage points below the national average of 71% but better than the 58% that St Helens CCG achieved in last year's survey.

Kenneth MacRae Medical Centre high-scored again here with 90%, followed by Parkfield Surgery on 88% and Lingholme Health Centre with 87%.

But worryingly, only 38% of patients surveyed at Billinge Medical Practice considered their appointment experience to be 'good' and 39% of patients at Haydock Medical Centre agreed - the lowest scores in the town.

In St Helens, 11,806 questionnaires were sent out with 4,429 returned completed. This represents a response rate of 38%, with 745 more people responding to the survey than the previous year.

Download the full St Helens 2021 survey results by clicking here.