Log on to rate your doctor

6:19am Friday 18th July 2008

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A new website has been set up by an Oxford doctor allowing patients to rate and review the experience they get from a visit to their GP.

Dr Neil Bacon, a renal specialist at the Churchill Hospital, set up the site to offer patients more information about their physicians.

Each of the country's 40,000 general practitioners and 120,000 hospital doctors have been listed on iwantgreatcare.org and in its first day thousands of patients logged on to give their opinions.

Dr Bacon said: "I wanted to help patients get better healthcare and help them share their experience of great doctors to help other patients - and to provide feedback for doctors."

The vast majority of reviews added since Sunday's launch had been positive.

Dr Bacon, 41, of Shipton-under-Wychwood, has taken a sabbatical and said he spent the last year planning the website, talking to doctors, the Department of Health, patient groups and the General Medical Council.

He said: "The response from the medical profession has been very high with the majority of doctors being very supportive, with a small minority being upset."

Patients are asked to rate their doctors in three areas; how much they trust them, how much they listen and whether they would recommend them.

Up to 500,000 people are expected to register their opinions by the end of the year and it is planned to provide links from individual doctors' and hospitals' websites to data about how their physicians have been reviewed.

Concerns have been raised about the system being vulnerable to abuse.

But Dr Bacon said: "Some people tried to attack a single doctor's profile while we were testing the site and it was detected immediately.

"It is easier to arrange a malicious campaign by getting people to write to a local newspaper. The service prevents people making multiple postings in a short period.

"I look forward to patients rating me when I return to practising and using that to help me improve."

Dr Tia MacGregor, a former city councillor and currently a locum GP based at St Bartholomew's Surgery in Manzil Way, said: "I think it is not a bad idea but the problem is care is so subjective.

"You will have 100 happy people and it may be the two that are unhappy will post a negative comment.

"Positive feedback is always welcome but if there is a genuine concern if something has not been done properly that is not the way to address it."

Patients in Oxford had mixed views. Mother-of-four Karen Cherry , 36, of Cowley, said: "I think it would be good to have the information on hand, but it depends because some people give useful reviews and some don't.

"I would have a little look, but I don't think I would contribute because every visit to the doctors is different."

Richard Bryant , 63, of Bulan Road, Headington, said: "I think they should do their own research in surgeries, because this is open to all sorts of abuse in terms of people making facetious and silly comments."

A spokesman for the GMC said a White Paper on regulation of health professionals, published in 2007, stated that feedback from patients and colleagues would become a "key element" in future.