Cheshire East · North West
Handforth Health Centre
Handforth Health Centre has a Practice Grade of 90.9 out of 100, based on 122 answers in the 2026 GP Patient Survey and NHS appointment data. That is 13.7 above the England average (77.2) and shares place 4 of 34 graded practices in Cheshire East. 80% of appointments took place within two weeks of booking (August 2026).
Updated with the 2026 GP Patient Survey · Appointments: August 2026
Practice Grade
Practice Grade
13.7 above the England average (77.2)
Based on 122 answers of 356 asked (34%)
Patients: clearly above the England average
Even with the margin of error, patients here describe the practice better than patients across England do, so the difference is very unlikely to be down to who happened to answer. How to read the margin of error.
Where Handforth Health Centre sits among all practices in England
Combined from patient experience (96.1, from the GP Patient Survey) and access (78.7, from NHS appointment and phone data). How we grade.
Why this grade?
Two parts, each compared with England; the share says how much each part counts:
- Patient experience96.1 · weighs 70%
- Access78.7 · weighs 30%
Practice Grade: 90.9
- Top 10% in England 2026
At a glance
- Trend 2024–2026 (overall experience)Unchanged 2024–202696.12024: 90.92026
- Shared place in the areaNo. 4 of 34
- Appointments within two weeks8 in 10
- Nearby practices with a higher gradeHigh Lane Medical Centre95.5 · 9.4 km
Flu vaccination in Cheshire East, winter 2025 to 2026
80.2% of patients aged 65 and over registered with GP practices in Cheshire East had a flu vaccine between 1 September 2025 and 28 February 2026 (77,764 of 96,942). England: 74.5%.
| Who | Cheshire East | England |
|---|---|---|
| Aged 65 and over77,764 of 96,942 | 80.2% | 74.5% |
| Under 65 in a clinical risk group30,052 of 64,149 | 46.8% | 40.6% |
| Pregnant women1,638 of 3,990 | 41.1% | 38.4% |
| Children aged 21,921 of 3,698 | 51.9% | 43.5% |
| Children aged 32,197 of 3,949 | 55.6% | 44.8% |
The counts follow the GP practice, not where people live. They include vaccinations given in GP practices, pharmacies and other places that are recorded in the GP record. 99.3% of practices sent data. UKHSA says the number counted as pregnant may be too high, so uptake among pregnant women is probably understated.
This card shows flu only. We have not found local authority figures for last winter’s COVID-19 vaccination from UKHSA.
Source: UK Health Security Agency, Seasonal influenza vaccine uptake in GP patients: winter season 2025 to 2026 (final data, published 28 May 2026). Open Government Licence v3.0.
What patients say
The share of patients who gave a positive answer, from the 2026 GP Patient Survey. The tick is England.
The wider the line around the dot, the less certain the figure, usually because fewer people answered. Read more about the method.
- Overall experience122 answers96.1%
England: 76.7%
- Contacting the practice121 answers96.4%
England: 72.6%
- Being listened to120 answers97.4%
England: 87.1%
- Confidence and trust121 answers97.4%
England: 92.7%
- Needs met119 answers96.8%
England: 90.2%
- Wait for an appointment113 answers84.8%
England: 69.3%
Patients' answers, question by question
Every question from the 2026 GP Patient Survey that we show. None of them except overall experience is part of the grade.
Contacting the practice
Contacting the practice: patients describing their experience of contacting the practice as good
96.4%121 answers
Getting through on the phone: patients saying it is easy to contact the practice on the phone
83.6%107 answers
Reception and admin team: patients saying the reception and administrative team is helpful
99.1%120 answers
Knowing the next step: patients who knew what the next step would be after contacting the practice
98.5%117 answers
Seeing the same person
Having a preferred professional: patients who have a healthcare professional they prefer to see or speak to
37.0%122 answers
Seeing your preferred professional: patients with a preferred healthcare professional who see or speak to them always, almost always or a lot of the time
52.0%46 answers
Your last appointment
Wait for an appointment: patients who felt the wait for their last appointment was about right
84.8%113 answers
Being listened to: patients saying the healthcare professional was good at listening to them
97.4%120 answers
Care and concern: patients saying the healthcare professional was good at treating them with care and concern
97.4%121 answers
Confidence and trust: patients who had confidence and trust in the healthcare professional
97.4%121 answers
Involvement in decisions: patients saying they were involved as much as they wanted in decisions about their care
97.1%111 answers
Needs met: patients saying their needs were met at their last appointment
96.8%119 answers
Appointments
- Within two weeks of booking
- 80.2% (August 2026, 2,751 appointments)
- Calls answered
- 77.0% (August 2026, 4,592 calls)
- England
- 87.7% within two weeks, 68.6% of calls answered
Month by month
The appointment part of the Practice Grade, month by month over the past year: the share of appointments that took place within two weeks of booking. The scale runs from 0 to 100%. A month without a figure is left empty, and we never fill it in.
| Month | Share |
|---|---|
| September 2025 | 81.3% |
| October 2025 | 89.6% |
| November 2025 | 83.7% |
| December 2025 | 85.7% |
| January 2026 | 86.5% |
| February 2026 | 84.3% |
| March 2026 | 80.0% |
| April 2026 | 75.5% |
| May 2026 | 75.6% |
| June 2026 | 75.5% |
| July 2026 | 81.9% |
| August 2026 | 80.2% |
80.2% in August 2026 (2,751 appointments). The same month, England as a whole had 87.7%.
Source: Appointments in General Practice, NHS England. Not a separate grade: the grade uses the latest month, as shown with the grade.
Time from booking to appointment
Routine appointments
Booked in advance for a problem that is not urgent.
- Within 7 days of booking
- 30.5%
- Within 14 days of booking
- 53.1%
- More than 28 days after booking
- 7.6%
- Appointments counted
- 1,100
Urgent (acute) appointments
Recorded by the practice as needing attention on the same day.
- Took place on the day it was booked
- 94.0%
- Within 7 days of booking
- 97.2%
- Appointments counted
- 1,346
These are the general consultations in August 2026, with any member of staff, by how many days passed between booking and the appointment. They are not how long a patient waited after first getting in touch: a routine appointment is often booked ahead on purpose, or on a date the patient chose. Planned clinics, triage calls, medication reviews and similar are left out, and so are appointments with no recorded booking date. The practice, not NHS England, decides whether an appointment is routine or acute.
NHS England publishes these figures as official statistics in development, and its own national figures use the same split: urgent appointments on the day of booking, and routine ones within 7 and 14 days. Practices record appointments in different ways, so we show no England figure beside these monthly figures. The grade uses a wider count, NHS England’s own measure of appointments within two weeks, shown with the grade above.
Source: NHS England, Appointments in General Practice, August 2026.
Do they look after you?
Do you see the same person?
Seeing your preferred professional: 52.0% (England 41.9%), 46 answers.
Can you get through?
Getting through on the phone: 83.6% (England 56.9%), 107 answers.
Calls answered by the practice: 77.0% (August 2026), from NHS phone data.
Are you listened to?
Being listened to: 97.4% (England 87.1%), 120 answers.
Needs met: 96.8% (England 90.2%), 119 answers.
Contact and location
Not part of the gradeLocation
The Green, Wilmslow Road, Handforth, Wilmslow, SK9 3HLShow on a mapPrimary care network: Chaw (Chelford, Handforth, Alderley Edge, Wilmslow) PCN. Find a GP on the NHS website
Source: NHS England Organisation Data Service, 20 October 2026.
Trend 2024–2026
The result held steady 2024–2026.
From the GP Patient Survey. Ipsos redesigned the survey in 2024 and started a new series, so earlier years are not shown and not compared. The trend follows question 32, the share of patients who describe the practice as good (the survey part of the Practice Grade); years without a result are left blank. England as a whole: 73.9% in 2024, 75.4% in 2025 and 76.7% in 2026. Small ups and downs that could just as well reflect who happened to respond count as unchanged, not as a change.
Overall experience (question 32)
Unchanged 2024–2026 · 3 surveys96.12024: 90.92026
Who answered
- Questionnaires returned
- 122
- Questionnaires sent
- 356
- Response rate
- 34.3%
The survey is sent to a random sample of registered patients aged 16 and over. Some questions are answered by fewer people than others, which is why each question has its own number of answers.
Independent: no one can pay to change a result, a label or what is shown, and the site has no ties to GP practices, other care providers or public authorities. The grade uses open data only: the 2026 GP Patient Survey and NHS England’s appointment and phone data. Who runs the site.
Below are facts and context. None of it is part of the Practice Grade.
About the practice
Not part of the grade
- CQC rating
- Good (published 2026-09-11)
- Registered patients
- 10,385 (1 October 2026)
- Primary care network
- Chaw (Chelford, Handforth, Alderley Edge, Wilmslow) PCN
Registered patients
How many patients were registered with the practice on 1 October each year, and how old they are.
- Since October 2019
- +597 (+6%) (9,788 then)
- Aged 0 to 14
- 17 in 100 (England 16, Cheshire East 15)
- Aged 15 to 44
- 36 in 100 (England 41, Cheshire East 35)
- Aged 45 to 64
- 25 in 100 (England 25, Cheshire East 27)
- Aged 65 to 79
- 15 in 100 (England 13, Cheshire East 16)
- Aged 80 or over
- 7 in 100 (England 5, Cheshire East 7)
A patient counts where they are registered, wherever they live. Lists grow when practices merge or new homes are built nearby, and get smaller when NHS England removes people who have moved away or died but were still on the list: NHS England says the fall of 105,684 patients in England in October 2026 came from that work. Cheshire East is the same count over every practice there. Source: NHS England, Patients Registered at a GP Practice, each October from 2019 to 2026.
Where patients live
Patients here live in areas around the middle of England for deprivation (decile 6 of 10).
- Deprivation decile
- 6 of 10 (1 is the most deprived tenth of England’s neighbourhoods, 10 the least)
- Deprivation index
- 15.8 (England 21.8; a higher figure is more deprived)
This describes the neighbourhoods where the practice’s registered patients live, not any one patient, and it says nothing about the care the practice gives. It is context and is not part of the grade. The figure is the IMD 2025 index of each neighbourhood, averaged over the practice’s patients, so a practice with patients from many neighbourhoods lands nearer the middle. It cannot be compared with the 2019 figures. Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, English Indices of Deprivation 2025, averaged for each practice by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (Fingertips).
Appointments
- Appointments in August 2026
- 5,172
- Booked for the same day
- 42.5%
- Face to face
- 61.1%
All appointments in the practice’s appointment book that month, with any member of staff, whether the patient attended or not. “Same day” means the appointment took place on the day it was booked; it is not a waiting time, and NHS England says it cannot measure demand on its own. “Face to face” is how the practice recorded the appointment; the rest were by phone, video, online or home visit. Both shares leave out appointments where this was not recorded.
NHS England publishes these figures as official statistics in development. Practices record appointments in different ways, and some activity, such as some appointments run by the primary care network, is not included, so NHS England says the figures do not give a complete view of a practice’s work.
Source: NHS England, Appointments in General Practice, August 2026.
GPs, nurses and other staff
- Full-time GPs per 1,000 patients
- 1.01 (England 0.63, Cheshire East 0.77)
- Full-time nurses per 1,000 patients
- 0.28 (England 0.26, Cheshire East 0.30)
- Other full-time clinical staff per 1,000 patients
- 0.11 (England 0.28, Cheshire East 0.23)
- All GPs
- 10.5 full-time equivalent
- Qualified permanent GPs
- 7.8 full-time equivalent
- Registered patients per permanent GP
- 1,337
Full-time equivalent adds up the hours staff work, so two GPs working half the week count as one. The figures per 1,000 patients are our own calculation from the same NHS England file: the full-time equivalent divided by the registered patients, times 1,000. GPs include GPs in training and locums. Other clinical staff are those employed by the practice who see patients, such as pharmacists, healthcare assistants and physiotherapists; staff employed by the primary care network instead of the practice are not counted. Cheshire East and England are the same calculation over every practice there. Qualified permanent GPs leave out GPs in training and locums. Patients per permanent GP is our own calculation, not an NHS England figure: registered patients divided by the full-time equivalent of qualified permanent GPs. It does not count work done by locums, GPs in training, nurses, pharmacists or other staff.
Source: NHS England, General Practice Workforce, August 2026.
Friends and Family Test
NHS England’s figures for June 2026 have no results for this practice.
The test asks patients about their overall experience of the practice. NHS England says it is not meant for comparing practices: each practice chooses how to collect answers, anyone who uses the practice can answer (there is no random sample), and the results are not adjusted for differences between patients.
Source: NHS England, Friends and Family Test, GP practices, June 2026.
Diabetes, blood pressure, asthma and COPD
Not part of our grade
How many in 100 of the practice’s patients with each condition had the check or reached the level the guidelines aim for in 2025-26 (1 April to 31 March), from NHS England’s Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF). The figures describe how care is recorded and followed up, not how good the care is for any one patient, and they are not part of our grade.
Diabetes
- Blood sugar (HbA1c) at 58 mmol/mol or lower
- 69 in 100 (539 patients, England 61, Cheshire East 61)
- Blood pressure at 140/90 or lower
- 78 in 100 (478 patients, England 79, Cheshire East 77)
- Feet checked in the last 12 months
- 82 in 100 (687 patients, England 79, Cheshire East 77)
High blood pressure
- Blood pressure at 140/90 or lower, aged 79 or under
- 76 in 100 (1,591 patients, England 72, Cheshire East 70)
- Blood pressure at 150/90 or lower, aged 80 or over
- 89 in 100 (495 patients, England 84, Cheshire East 81)
Asthma
- Asthma review with a written action plan in the last 12 months
- 74 in 100 (755 patients, England 68, Cheshire East 67)
COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)
- COPD review in the last 12 months
- 85 in 100 (234 patients, England 77, Cheshire East 76)
Patients are everyone on the practice’s register for the condition in the group the row names, including those the practice left out of its QOF target for personalised care reasons, such as someone who chose not to have the check. So a figure can be lower than the achievement the practice reports. With fewer than 10 patients in a group the row says the patients are too few instead. Cheshire East and England are the same calculation over every practice there. None of the figures is adjusted for how old or how unwell a practice’s patients are.
Source: NHS England, Quality and Outcomes Framework, 2025-26, indicators DM020, DM036, DM012, HYP008, HYP009, AST007 and COPD010. Open Government Licence v3.0.
Vaccinations and screening
Not part of our grade
How many of the practice’s patients in each group had childhood vaccinations or cervical screening, from NHS England’s Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) for 2025-26. These figures are not part of our grade. We show them as published and make no comparison between practices.
Childhood vaccinations
Babies at 8 months
Babies who had at least 3 doses of a vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough before they were 8 months old.
94.3% (100 of 106). England: 88.7%.
Children at 18 months
Children who had at least 1 dose of the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella) between 12 and 18 months old.
81.1% (77 of 95). England: 85.6%.
Children at 5 years
Children who had the pre-school booster (diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and polio) and at least 2 doses of MMR between the ages of 1 and 5.
90.3% (93 of 103). England: 83.4%.
Cervical screening
Women aged 25 to 49
Women eligible for cervical screening with an adequate test recorded in the last 3 years and 6 months.
80.2% (1,338 of 1,669). England: 66.3%.
Women aged 50 to 64
Women eligible for cervical screening with an adequate test recorded in the last 5 years and 6 months.
79.9% (697 of 872). England: 75.4%.
The period is 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026: the children who reached the age in that year, and the women aged 25 to 64 at its end. Each figure is the number of patients with the vaccine or test recorded, out of everyone eligible. Eligible includes patients the practice has left out of the QOF target for personalised care reasons, for example someone who chose not to have it after talking it through, or who did not reply to invitations, so the percentage can be lower than the QOF achievement figure the practice reports. England is the same calculation over every practice.
The numbers are what the practice has on record. A vaccine or test given elsewhere only counts once it reaches that record. Every eligible patient is counted, so there is no survey margin of error, but when only a few patients are eligible one patient more or less moves the percentage a lot.
Source: NHS England, Quality and Outcomes Framework, 2025-26, indicators VI001 to VI003, CS005 and CS006.
Antibiotic prescribing
Not part of our grade
How much this practice prescribes antibiotics, and which ones, from NHS Business Services Authority prescribing data. Public health bodies aim to cut unnecessary antibiotic use because it helps bacteria become resistant to the drugs, but a figure cannot tell you whether any one prescription was needed. These figures are not part of our grade.
How much
- Antibiotic items per STAR-PU
- 0.88 (5,350 items, April 2025 to March 2026, England 0.74, Cheshire East 0.71)
Which antibiotics
From September 2025 to August 2026.
- Broad-spectrum antibiotics
- 6 in 100 items (of 5,503 antibiotic items, England 8, Cheshire East 6)
- Nitrofurantoin for urine infections
- 72 in 100 items (of 797 nitrofurantoin and trimethoprim items, England 70, Cheshire East 69)
One item is one antibiotic on a prescription. STAR-PU weights the practice’s list by age and sex, so practices with older or younger patients can be set side by side; it does not allow for illness, so a practice whose patients have more infections or other conditions can prescribe more for good reasons. Broad-spectrum antibiotics are co-amoxiclav, cephalosporins and quinolones, which kill many kinds of bacteria and are kept for when others will not do. For most urine infections NICE’s first choice is nitrofurantoin or, when the risk of resistance is low, trimethoprim. NHS England has asked practices to favour nitrofurantoin, because the bacteria behind urine infections resist trimethoprim more often; the row shows how many of the two were nitrofurantoin. Cheshire East and England are the same calculation over every practice there. Only items prescribed by the practice and dispensed in the community are counted.
Source: NHS Business Services Authority, English Prescribing Dataset, September 2025 to August 2026. Items per STAR-PU: UK Health Security Agency and Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (Fingertips), from the same NHS Business Services Authority data, April 2025 to March 2026. Open Government Licence v3.0.
What we cannot measure
- The quality of the treatment itself: open data shows how patients describe their practice and how soon appointments take place, not clinical outcomes.
- One doctor or nurse: the figures are for the whole practice.
- Whether the practice can take you: that depends on its boundary and its list, which the practice decides.
- This year’s changes: the survey ran in early 2026, and a new team or system since then is not in the figures.
Questions to ask the practice (3)
This does not show in the figures, but you can ask the practice yourself before you register.
- Does my address fall inside your boundary, and are you taking new patients?
- How do I book an appointment, and how soon can I usually see someone?
- Can I ask to see the same GP or nurse each time?
Other GP practices in Cheshire East
Nearby practices whose grade is clearly higher, then the same primary care network.
Practices serving similar patients in Cheshire and Merseyside
Practices in the same integrated care board with a similar deprivation decile (the same or the next one) and a list of about the same size, highest grade first, five at most. Only practices with a label are named, and the order is not a ranking: neighbouring grades are often within the margin of error.
- The Surgery
Practice Grade 98.3 (likely range 94.0 to 98.9, 113 answers), decile 6, 5,633 patients - The Villa Medical Centre
Practice Grade 93.4 (likely range 90.4 to 94.9, 120 answers), decile 5, 6,055 patients - Laurel Bank Surgery
Practice Grade 93.2 (likely range 89.0 to 94.6, 110 answers), decile 6, 16,398 patients - Park Lane Surgery
Practice Grade 90.9 (likely range 80.5 to 95.3, 106 answers), decile 6, 10,405 patients - Boughton Medical Group
Practice Grade 90.1 (likely range 79.7 to 94.2, 115 answers), decile 7, 13,068 patients
Similar GP practices in North West
GP practices in the region with the nearest grade, in other areas.
- Meadowview Surgery Practice Grade 90.9
- Parkfield Surgery Practice Grade 90.9
- Newtown Medical Practice Practice Grade 91.0
- Liverpool Rd Medical Practice Practice Grade 90.8
- New Longton Surgery Practice Grade 90.8
- Western Ave Medical Ctre Practice Grade 90.8
Common questions
How good is Handforth Health Centre?
Handforth Health Centre has a Practice Grade of 90.9 out of 100, 13.7 above the England average (77.2), from 122 answers in the 2026 GP Patient Survey and NHS appointment data. Even with the margin of error, patients here describe the practice better than patients across England do, so the difference is very unlikely to be down to who happened to answer.
How soon can I get an appointment at Handforth Health Centre?
In August 2026, 80% of appointments at Handforth Health Centre took place within two weeks of booking. Time from booking is not the whole wait, and practices record appointments in different ways.
How do I register with Handforth Health Centre?
Check that your address is inside the practice’s boundary, then register online, in the NHS App or on a paper form at the practice. You do not need to tell your current practice.
2026 GP Patient Survey: https://www.gp-patient.co.uk/
2024 GP Patient Survey: https://www.gp-patient.co.uk/
2025 GP Patient Survey: https://www.gp-patient.co.uk/
Contains information from NHS England, licenced under the current version of the Open Government Licence
Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026
Contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2026
Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0
Contains information from the Care Quality Commission, licensed under the Open Government Licence. CQC must be acknowledged as the source of the data; CQC is not responsible for our analysis.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Deprivation: English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government), averaged for each practice's patients by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (Fingertips).
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Antibiotic prescribing: UK Health Security Agency and Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (Fingertips), from NHS Business Services Authority prescribing data.
Contains information from the NHS Business Services Authority, English Prescribing Dataset, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
All sources and licences
Practice code (ODS): N81070