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The bosses of England’s worst-performing GP surgery for face-to-face appointments live in a sprawling £4million mansion and drive a fleet of luxury cars, MailOnline can reveal.
According to the latest NHS data, Bath Road Surgery in Hounslow, West London — run by father and son doctors Sunil and Akhil Mayor — held just over 15 per cent of its GP consultations in person, the lowest rate in the country.
And when MailOnline tried to book an appointment to see both Dr Mayors, even we were knocked back.
In what will be a bitter pill for their patients to swallow, Dr Sunil Mayor, 67 and his 34-year-old son live in a huge detached house on an exclusive gated private estate in Surrey.
Bath Road Surgery in Hounslow – which was placed in special measures for six months in 2015 after being rated ‘inadequate’ by a Care Quality Commission report – had the lowest percentage of appointments held face-to-face in the country in November, at just 15.3 per cent
The Bath Road surgery in Hounslow is run by Eton-educated Dr Akhil Mayor, 34, (pictured) who also does private work at the Cromwell Hospital and his father Dr Sunil Mayor
Dr Sunil Mayor, 67 and his 34-year-old son live in a huge detached house with a swimming pool (above) on the exclusive private estate in Surrey
The luxury home — which the family bought for £527,000 in 1996 — has a galleried entrance hall, a porch with four grand stone columns and a double garage with living quarters above it.
On the pristine driveway were parked a silver Mercedes and white Range Rover.
They live on a private estate, which spans six-miles, and is popular with high-flying city execs and footballers.
MailOnline visited the doctors at their plush pile but the cleaner answered and said they were both out.
At the Bath Road Surgery, eight miles away, a receptionist explained that both doctors were not in today.
Eton-educated Dr Akhil Mayor was instead conducting private appointments at the exclusive Cromwell Hospital in central London, where he works four days a week.
When asked if he would comment about the lack of face-to-face appointments at his surgery in Hounslow, a spokesman for the Cromwell Hospital said: ‘I’ve asked if he will talk to you but he doesn’t want to. There’s no comment.’
MailOnline this week compiled a definitive guide to all of England’s 6,000 plus GP practices.
All the NHS data was crunched into fascinating interactive tools that enable you to search any practice in the country and find out what percentage of appointments are held face-to-face, how many patients are seen the same day they called and how satisfied they are with their GP — as well as much more.
This map shows the 50 GP practices with the lowest proportion of face-to-face appointments according to official NHS data. MailOnline’s analysis excluded practices if the mode of appointment was unknown for more than 20 per cent of their consultations and if the GP service did not routinely offer regular face-to-face appointments, such as care home services. NHS Digital describes this data as ‘experimental’ meaning it may not capture the full picture and is more prone to reporting errors
The data examined is from November, which, at the time of sifting through the data, was the latest fully comparable figures available.
During that month, national statistics showed the number of in-face consultations dipped back to 69 per cent.
According to NHS data, Bath Road Surgery in Hounslow had the lowest percentage of appointments held face-to-face in November at just 15.3 per cent, slightly below Ashburnham Road Surgery in Bedford which held 15.5 per cent.
Dr Akhil Mayor runs the practice with his dad
MailOnline did not include surgeries with more than 20 per cent of appointments being held in an ‘unknown’ method, or those which solely offer remote consultations, in its analysis.
Bath Road Surgery was placed in special measures for six months in 2015 after being rated ‘inadequate’ by a Care Quality Commission report.
Inspectors who visited the practice rated it ‘inadequate’ in three of the five criteria on which it was judged and found that it required improvement in the other two.
Sterile gloves used to prevent the spread of infection were out of date and the leadership structure was criticised as ‘ineffective’.
However, patients were usually able to get same-day appointments for urgent conditions and most felt they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect.
NHS statistics show there were fewer than 6,500 practices open in England this year— down from 8,100 in 2013.
Less than seven in 10 GP appointments in England (68.3 per cent) were held face-to-face in December. It marks the second month in a row that the figure has fallen after peaking at 71.3 per cent in October. Eight in 10 consultations were in-person pre-pandemic. But the figure has so far failed to bounce back
The latest NHS data on GP appointments for December showed the less than half of appointments were with a family doctor
Official figures show GPs’ average pay spiked during the pandemic shooting up about £10,000 to almost £112,000 in the latest reporting period
Practice closures put even more pressure on the family doctors that remain, as patients from those that shut their doors join ‘soulless’ mega-practices.
Many GP bodies now warn that family doctors are responsible for too many patients, with some parts of the country now having over 1,000 patients per doctor.
Experts have said this is both unsafe for patients — who are rushed through appointments by doctors with massive workloads — and also contributes to burnout among GPs.
Many family doctors are choosing to retire in their 50s, move abroad or leave to work in the private sector because of complaints about soaring demand and paperwork.
At the same time, the population has also grown, exacerbating the patient list size ratio.