Oldham's hardest GP surgeries to contact over the phone

The latest rankings have been compiled based on the results of this year’s GP Patient Survey, which asks patients about all aspects of their surgery experience.

All the data was collected between January 2 and April 13, 2026, with the results published this month.

‘Ease of contacting GP practice on the phone’ is one of the questions covered by the annual NHS England GP Patient Survey.

Some of the other areas covered by the survey include how easy it is to get an appointment and how often patients get to see their preferred GP, reception staff helpfulness, as well as their overall experience.

The survey asked patients to rate how easy it is to contact their surgeries over the phone with multiple-choice answers of ‘very easy’, ‘fairly easy’, ‘neither easy nor hard’, ‘fairly difficult’ and ‘not difficult’.

There was also an option for ‘I haven’t tried’, but this was excluded from the dataset.

The best and worst GP practices in Oldham in terms of getting hold of via phone were worked out by taking the bottom and top results for overall ‘easy’ rating.

In Oldham, the GP surgery easiest to contact over the phone in 2026 is Moorside Medical Practice, where 90 per cent of respondents answered positively.

Also ranking highly for contacting over the phone were Leesbrook Surgery, where 88 per cent of respondents responded positively and Oak Gables with 75 per cent.

Moorside Medical Practice have been contacted for comment.

Moorside Medical Practice is the easiest GP surgery in Oldham to contact over the phone (Image: Google Maps)

At the other end of the spectrum, the surgery in Oldham hardest to contact over the phone was Saddleworth Medical Practice, where only 23 per cent of respondents answered positively to the question.

A spokesperson for the surgery said: "We understand that being able to contact your GP practice easily is important to patients, and we recognise the findings of this year's GP Patient Survey.

"The survey reflects patients' experiences between January and April 2026, and we acknowledge that some patients experienced difficulties contacting us by telephone during that period.

"Improving access has been one of our key priorities and continues to be a major focus for the practice.

"The latest survey shows that our score for ease of contacting the practice by telephone has increased from 13% in the previous survey to 23% this year.

"While we recognise there is still more progress to make, we are encouraged that this reflects the direction of travel as our ongoing programme of improvements continues."

The statement also outlined some of the ways the surgery is working to improve, including "enhancements to our telephone system and call-back functionality, improvements to call handling, and a new approach to managing patient requests."

They added: "This approach aims to ensure patients receive a timely response, with urgent clinical needs prioritised within 24 hours."

Saddleworth Medical Practice highlighted the CQC observations on phone call wait times and their own data.

A spokesperson said: "The CQC found that we had listened to patient feedback and made changes to improve access, highlighting the reduction in average telephone queue times from 39 minutes in October 2025 to 6 minutes in March 2026.

"Our own telephone performance data indicates these improvements have continued beyond the survey period."

They added: "We know there is always more we can do, and we remain committed to improving access while continuing to provide safe, compassionate and high-quality care for our patients and the wider Saddleworth community."

Also ranking low for ‘ease of contacting over the phone’ were Quayside Medical Practice, where 37 per cent of patients responded positively and the Chowdhury Practice with 39 per cent.

The full data set for all GP surgeries in the UK can be found on the GP Patient Survey website.