A SURVEY into people's experiences of their GP practices has shown inequalities in health provision between the north and the south of the borough.

The results of this year's GP Patient Survey were published earlier in the month after more than 10,000 questionnaires were circulated, of which 3,870 were completed.

These questionnaires asked a range of questions on people's experiences of their practices, like making appointments and accessing online or out-of-hours services.

And one question asked for people to rate their overall satisfaction with their experiences.

Trafford's overall satisfaction rating was 88 per cent, higher than the national average, but there was a striking difference between practices in the north and in the south.

All of the top ten practices by overall satisfaction rating were in the south, and only two in the north - Urmston Group Practice and Davyhulme Medical Centre - made the top half of the table.

Meanwhile, all of the bottom five practices by overall satisfaction rating, and the only ones to fall below the national average, were in the north.

The bottom three - Old Trafford Medical Practice, Limelight Health and Wellbeing Hub and North Trafford Medical Practice - are all located in Old Trafford specifically.

Stretford and Urmston MP Kate Green told The Messenger the inequalities shown in the survey are 'not acceptable'.

She said: "It’s not acceptable that the residents in my constituency in the north of Trafford suffer poorer health and lower life expectancy than richer parts of the borough.

"Too many of our practices are overstretched, they’re not all in suitable premises, and a heavy workload makes it harder to attract and retain GPs.

"They’ve done an amazing job throughout Covid, but we need to prioritise investment in the areas that need it most."

But Dr Mark Jarvis, medical director at NHS Trafford Clinical Commissioning Group, said work is ongoing to address the borough's inequalities.

He said: "We work with a variety of partners across Trafford to address inequality across the borough.

"Covid has highlighted its impact on health, which has given everyone increased motivation to address it.

"A prominent example of this is the additional efforts being carried out across the north of the borough to encourage uptake of the vaccine.

"Regarding the patient survey results, there are lower responses for some practices than others, which will likely have an impact on overall satisfaction rates.

"These rates will also likely have been impacted by significant reorganisation to primary care in the north, where large numbers of patients have made the move over to new practices.

"We're supportive of all our GP practices in all parts of Trafford, many of which have continued to provide services and embrace changes to the primary care landscape all while delivering the vaccination programme, which has been a huge undertaking."