Portsmouth · South East
The Lighthouse Group Practice
The Lighthouse Group Practice has a Practice Grade of 54.8 out of 100, based on 108 answers in the 2026 GP Patient Survey and NHS appointment data. That is 22.4 below the England average (77.2). 79% 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
22.4 below the England average (77.2)
Based on 108 answers of 448 asked (24%)
Combined from patient experience (46.6, from the GP Patient Survey) and access (73.9, 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 experience46.6 · weighs 70%
- Access73.9 · weighs 30%
Practice Grade: 54.8
At a glance
- Trend 2024–2026 (overall experience)Worse 2024–202646.62024: 61.62026
- Appointments within two weeks8 in 10
- Nearby practices with a higher gradeThe Unicity Medical Centre74.2 · 0.8 kmIsland City Practice76.4 · 0.9 km
Flu vaccination in Portsmouth, winter 2025 to 2026
76.3% of patients aged 65 and over registered with GP practices in Portsmouth had a flu vaccine between 1 September 2025 and 28 February 2026 (27,305 of 35,803). England: 74.5%.
| Who | Portsmouth | England |
|---|---|---|
| Aged 65 and over27,305 of 35,803 | 76.3% | 74.5% |
| Under 65 in a clinical risk group16,800 of 36,881 | 45.6% | 40.6% |
| Pregnant women1,183 of 2,814 | 42.0% | 38.4% |
| Children aged 21,100 of 2,134 | 51.5% | 43.5% |
| Children aged 31,102 of 2,163 | 50.9% | 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 experience108 answers46.6%
England: 76.7%
- Contacting the practice108 answers31.6%
England: 72.6%
- Being listened to104 answers74.1%
England: 87.1%
- Confidence and trust103 answers89.7%
England: 92.7%
- Needs met104 answers69.9%
England: 90.2%
- Wait for an appointment91 answers43.0%
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
31.6%108 answers
Getting through on the phone: patients saying it is easy to contact the practice on the phone
21.7%102 answers
Reception and admin team: patients saying the reception and administrative team is helpful
55.0%103 answers
Knowing the next step: patients who knew what the next step would be after contacting the practice
58.3%98 answers
Seeing the same person
Having a preferred professional: patients who have a healthcare professional they prefer to see or speak to
17.0%110 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
Too few answers to show (16, we need 30).
Your last appointment
Wait for an appointment: patients who felt the wait for their last appointment was about right
43.0%91 answers
Being listened to: patients saying the healthcare professional was good at listening to them
74.1%104 answers
Care and concern: patients saying the healthcare professional was good at treating them with care and concern
70.0%103 answers
Confidence and trust: patients who had confidence and trust in the healthcare professional
89.7%103 answers
Involvement in decisions: patients saying they were involved as much as they wanted in decisions about their care
81.4%99 answers
Needs met: patients saying their needs were met at their last appointment
69.9%104 answers
Appointments
- Within two weeks of booking
- 79.4% (August 2026, 1,332 appointments)
- Calls answered
- 68.4% (August 2026, 3,573 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 | 88.0% |
| October 2025 | 92.2% |
| November 2025 | 95.7% |
| December 2025 | 93.5% |
| January 2026 | 93.9% |
| February 2026 | 95.7% |
| March 2026 | 91.7% |
| April 2026 | 87.4% |
| May 2026 | 85.4% |
| June 2026 | 83.2% |
| July 2026 | 79.0% |
| August 2026 | 79.4% |
79.4% in August 2026 (1,332 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
- 25.8%
- Within 14 days of booking
- 54.1%
- More than 28 days after booking
- 9.7%
- Appointments counted
- 423
Urgent (acute) appointments
Recorded by the practice as needing attention on the same day.
- Took place on the day it was booked
- 41.0%
- Within 7 days of booking
- 81.9%
- Appointments counted
- 843
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?
Can you get through?
Getting through on the phone: 21.7% (England 56.9%), 102 answers.
Calls answered by the practice: 68.4% (August 2026), from NHS phone data.
Are you listened to?
Being listened to: 74.1% (England 87.1%), 104 answers.
Needs met: 69.9% (England 90.2%), 104 answers.
Contact and location
Not part of the gradeLocation
Southesea Medical Centre, Carlisle Road, Southsea, PO5 1ATShow on a mapPrimary care network: Brunel PCN. Find a GP on the NHS website
Source: NHS England Organisation Data Service, 20 October 2026.
Trend 2024–2026
2024–2026: worse on overall experience.
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)
Worse 2024–2026 · 3 surveys46.62024: 61.62026
Who answered
- Questionnaires returned
- 110
- Questionnaires sent
- 448
- Response rate
- 24.6%
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 2025-10-28)
- Registered patients
- 11,888 (2026-08)
- Primary care network
- Brunel PCN
Appointments
- Appointments in August 2026
- 5,157
- Booked for the same day
- 44.4%
- Face to face
- 52.6%
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
- All GPs
- 5.8 full-time equivalent
- Qualified permanent GPs
- 3.3 full-time equivalent
- Registered patients per permanent GP
- 3,624
Full-time equivalent adds up the hours GPs work, so two GPs working half the week count as one. 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
- Answers in June 2026
- 10
- Answered “very good” or “good”
- 50.0%
- Answered “poor” or “very poor”
- 50.0%
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. So we show it as the practice’s own feedback, with no England figure beside it.
Source: NHS England, Friends and Family Test, GP practices, June 2026.
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.
88.8% (79 of 89), likely range 80.5% to 93.8%. 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.
74.7% (62 of 83), likely range 64.4% to 82.8%. 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.
83.6% (107 of 128), likely range 76.2% to 89.0%. 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.
61.2% (1,282 of 2,095), likely range 59.1% to 63.3%. 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.
68.2% (626 of 918), likely range 65.1% to 71.1%. 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.
Antibiotic prescribing
Not part of our grade
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.
0.51 (3,438 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.
8.4% (290 of 3,443 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.
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 Portsmouth
Nearby practices whose grade is clearly higher, then the same primary care network.
Common questions
How good is The Lighthouse Group Practice?
The Lighthouse Group Practice has a Practice Grade of 54.8 out of 100, 22.4 below the England average (77.2), from 108 answers in the 2026 GP Patient Survey and NHS appointment data.
How soon can I get an appointment at The Lighthouse Group Practice?
In August 2026, 79% of appointments at The Lighthouse Group Practice 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 The Lighthouse Group Practice?
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. Antibiotic prescribing: UK Health Security Agency and Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (Fingertips), from NHS Business Services Authority prescribing data.
All sources and licences
Practice code (ODS): J82060