The Elms Surgery

Every question from the 2026 GP Patient Survey that we show. None of them except overall experience is part of the grade.

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 surveys
  2024: 83.92026

  83.2

How we decide whether a practice has changed

CQC rating

Requires improvement (published 2023-05-24)

Registered patients

8,674 (2026-08)

Primary care network

Central Watford PCN

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.

  93.8% (122 of 130), likely range 88.3% to 96.8%. 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.

  85.7% (108 of 126), likely range 78.5% to 90.8%. 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.

  83.3% (90 of 108), likely range 75.2% to 89.2%. 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.

  66.9% (1,421 of 2,125), likely range 64.8% to 68.8%. 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.

  74.5% (385 of 517), likely range 70.5% to 78.0%. 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. The likely range shows how far the percentage could move by chance when only a few patients are eligible; it is not a margin of error from a survey, because every eligible patient is counted.

Source: NHS England, Quality and Outcomes Framework, 2025-26, indicators VI001 to VI003, CS005 and CS006.

The antibiotics this practice prescribed from April 2025 to March 2026, from NHS Business Services Authority prescribing data as published by the UK Health Security Agency and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. These figures are not part of our grade. 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. We show them as published, with England beside them, and make no comparison between practices.

• Antibiotic items per STAR-PU

  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. We add the four quarters into one year.

  0.76 (3,413 items). England: 0.74.

• Share that were broad-spectrum

  Cephalosporins, quinolones and co-amoxiclav, which the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities counts as broad-spectrum and aims to keep to a small share of all antibiotic items.

  5.1% (179 of 3,535 items). England: 8.1%.

Only items prescribed by the practice and dispensed in the community are counted. Items per STAR-PU allows for patients’ age and sex but not for illness, so a practice whose patients have more infections or other conditions can prescribe more for good reasons. The broad-spectrum share is not adjusted at all, and the source calls it a crude figure to treat with caution when comparing practices. England is the same calculation over every practice in the data.

Source: UK Health Security Agency and Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (Fingertips), antibiotic prescribing by GP practice, from NHS Business Services Authority data, April 2025 to March 2026.

• 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.

Nearby practices whose grade is clearly higher, then the same primary care network.

• Little Bushey Surgery
• Elliott Hall Medical Ctr.
• Suthergrey House Medical Centre
• Watford Health Centre
• All GP practices in Watford

GP practices in the region with the nearest grade, in other areas.

• Chet Valley Medical Practice Practice Grade 84.7
• North Avenue Surgery Practice Grade 84.7
• Crocus Medical Practice Practice Grade 84.8
• Dr Sims and Partners Practice Grade 84.8
• The Greensward Surgery Practice Grade 84.8
• Great Bentley Surgery Practice Grade 84.6