The NHS is starting a campaign urging older adult to have a vaccination against the RSV virus, which can cause serious consequences for older people.
Please note that this vaccination doesn't have to be repeated every year like the flu vaccine - you just get it once.
Every year the polling company Ipsos-Mori carries out a detailed survey of what patients think about the GP practice on behalf of the NHS. A good sample of responses is sought from each GP practice. This year's results have recently been published.
It can be difficult to interpret the results; what does it mean if 93% of patients think that their experience is good or very good? What about the 7% who don't? Is that too much?
For this reason we compare the answers of all surgeries in England (after eliminating those that have too few responses) and rank the surgeries according to the answers. Then we express this rank as a percentage (so-called "percentile rank"). If you score 100% that means you are right at the top. If you score 50% that means that your results are right in the middle of all surgeries. If your score is 1% that means you are below almost all other surgeries. That makes it easier to see strengths and weaknesses.
We have applied this method to 6 key questions asked in the survey (there are about 50 in all). Please see the first spreadsheet file attached below for this year's results for Reading GP practices this year and the second spreadsheet file for the results for Reading GP practices for all years from 2018 to 2025.
To read more about our approach to interpreting these results please view this web page.
The results for 2025 for just 3 most significant questions for Reading practices are in the table below.
| Practice Name | PCN Name | 16: Overall how would you describe your experience of contacting your GP practice on this occasion? [Percentile Rank] | 31: Thinking about the reason for your last appointment were your needs met?[Percentile Rank] | 32: Overall how would you describe your experience of your GP practice? [Percentile Rank] |
| Year | 2025 | 2025 | 2025 | |
| PARKSIDE PRACTICE | WOKINGHAM NORTH PCN | 23.2% | 31.6% | 36.4% |
| UNIVERSITY MEDICAL GROUP | READING UNIVERSITY PCN | 62.4% | 59.1% | 78.1% |
| LONDON STREET SURGERY | READING CENTRAL PCN | 29.9% | 14.2% | 26.2% |
| CHATHAM STREET SURGERY | READING CENTRAL PCN | 39.3% | 25.0% | 48.0% |
| LONG BARN LANE SURGERY | NEW READING PCN | 30.6% | 34.0% | 32.1% |
| PEMBROKE SURGERY | READING CENTRAL PCN | 73.1% | 31.2% | 61.4% |
| SOUTH READING & SHINFIELD GROUP MED PRAC | NEW READING PCN | 5.6% | 51.9% | 5.5% |
| RUSSELL STREET SURGERY | NEW READING PCN | 16.0% | 43.0% | 31.3% |
| MELROSE SURGERY | NEW READING PCN | 51.1% | 78.8% | 64.1% |
| MILMAN & KENNET SURGERY | READING HOLYBROOK PCN | 37.5% | 23.8% | 28.5% |
| ABBEY MEDICAL CENTRE | READING HOLYBROOK PCN | 55.0% | 22.4% | 51.7% |
| BROAD STREET HEALTH CENTRE | READING HOLYBROOK PCN | 45.2% | 53.8% | 35.6% |
| BALMORE PARK SURGERY | CAVERSHAM PCN | 42.3% | 64.1% | 51.8% |
| EMMER GREEN SURGERY | CAVERSHAM PCN | 96.5% | 79.2% | 96.0% |
| THE POTTERIES [& CHANCELLOR HOUSE] | THE TRIANGLE PCN | 18.8% | 46.4% | 33.7% |
| WESTERN ELMS & CIRCUIT LANE SURGERIES | ELM PARK PCN | 29.1% | 50.2% | 30.2% |
| WESTWOOD ROAD SURGERY | READING CENTRAL PCN | 77.3% | 57.1% | 70.7% |
| GROVELANDS MEDICAL CENTRE | READING CENTRAL PCN | 17.8% | 71.1% | 48.2% |
| TILEHURST VILLAGE SURGERY | THE TRIANGLE PCN | 25.0% | 56.5% | 10.5% |
After consultation starting in late 2024 and the Government's 3-year Spending Review, the NHS 10-year plan for health in England is published.
Please click here to access the plan in various formats and its executive summary.
For an easier introduction try:
Reading Patient Voice Group meets at 6pm on Wednesday 16th July to hear Prof Carol Wagstaff of Reading University talking about work on health inequalities with Berkshire Healthcare. We will also discuss our preliminary contacts with the Patient Voice groups of West Berkshire and Wokingham, first thoughts on the NHS 10-year plan and local healthcare matters.
Please find below the agenda for the meeting.
Corrected 10 July 205 to reflect uncertainty as to how local Healthwatch will be carried forward.
According to BBC reports the Government is to abolish over 200 supervisory organisations in the health service, including Healthwatch England, the Office of the National Guardian, which is supposed to support whistleblowers and offer training related to whistle blowing and the Health Services Safety Investigations Board.
It is unclear how local Healthwatch bodies, such as Healthwatch Reading, will go forward.
Healthwatch Reading represents patients on the Reading Health and Wellbeing Board and in many discussions on the commissioning of health services with the BOB Integrated Care Board. Will this continue as before?
Our view is that the NHS should adopt a no-fault approach to medical errors and encourage whistle-blowing rather than abolishing the body supposedly supporting whistle blowers.
BOB Integrated Care Board has made arrangements for the Urgent Care Centre at Broad Street Mall to be moved to the Royal Berkshire Hospital main site at Craven Road, Reading from 1st July 2025. The facility is no longer a walk-in facility. Patients must phone 111 or use 111.nhs.uk online to obtain advice and direction to an appropriate facility, which may include referral to the Urgent Care Centre. Patients could also be referred there by the Royal Berks A&E department or their GP surgery.
The Urgent Care Centre at the Royal Berkshire Hospital will be operated by Primary Care Partners Ltd, which is noted as a wholly owned subsidiary of Operose Health Ltd. Operose Health Ltd was the subject of a BBC news investigation some years ago.
The Reading Urgent Care Centre will be open from 8am to 8pm every day of the year. Further information about the centre is here.
The latest issue of the BOB ICB newsletter explains that the BOB area - Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West, will grow by adding East Berkshire, comprised of the boroughs of Bracknell Forest, Windsor and Maidenhead and Slough. This include Frimley Park hospital and much of the Frimley ICB area. The government is requiring ICB areas to be coterminous with local authority boundaries. BOB ICB already has the same chair as Frimley ICB in Dr Priya Singh. Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is the NHS provider of mental health services and community health services across Berkshire as a whole, so this move simplifies their environment.
To mark World Continence Week the Berkshire Healthcare Bowel and Bladder Bus will be visiting Morrisons in Basingstoke Road from 10.00 to 14.30 on Tueday 17th June 2025.
Reading Patient Voice Group will meet at 6pm on Wednesday 18th June 2025 The Director of Public Health will speak about his area of responsibility in Reading - our public health.
Please click this link to join the meeting.
The BOB (Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West) NHS Integrated Care Board will meet online at 13.30 on Tuesday 8th Jul 2025.
