This is how the GP surgery rankings for Sheffield are collected

Folders containing patient records are pictured in a General Practitioners surgery (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

The findings are released as part of the GP Patient Survey which is sent out once a year to over 2 million adults aged 16 or over who are registered with a GP in England.

The results of the survey for each GP practice are weighted to adjust the data to account for potential differences between the demographic profile of all eligible patients in a practice and the patients who actually complete a questionnaire.

The Star has ranked the GP surgeries by the percentaage of patients who had a good overall experience of their GP practice.

Patients who filled in the survey are asked: “Overall, how would you describe your experience of your GP practice?”

The score is worked out by dividing the numerator by the denominator and then multiplying this by 100.

The numerator is the total responses who answered ‘Very good’ and ‘Fairly good’ to question 31 ‘Overall, how would you describe your experience of your GP practice?’.

And then denominator is the total responses to this question.

The scores for all GP practices are compared nationally and grouped into three bandings:

‘Among the worst’ – these are scores that fall with the bottom 25% of all scores nationally in response to this question.

‘In the middle range’ – these are scores that fall in the middle 50% of all scores nationally in response to this question.

‘Among the best’ – these are scores that fall with the top 25% of all scores nationally in response to this question.

The Star has compiled a list of all the GP surgeries with scores that fall in the bottom 25 per cent of all scores nationally in response to this question.

An NHS spokesperson said: “When using indicators to make comparisons between general practices, it is important to consider the context in which GP's provide services.

“For example, the characteristics of the patients treated by a practice – in terms of factors like age or deprivation – can affect the value of an indicator, unless these factors are taken into account when the indicator is calculated.

“Similarly, a practice’s performance on an indicator can sometimes be influenced by other organisations that are caring for the same patients – local hospitals or community services, for example.”