As a quality improvement program, we recently collected feedback from our patients. We emailed a questionnaire to all patients (or their carers) who had a consultation at the clinic over a five-week period in October to November 2025, asking them to evaluate their experiences with our practice. The questions included various aspects of the practice such as:

Access and availability – making an appointment and waiting to see a GP;
Communication and interpersonal skills of reception staff;
Interpersonal and communication skills of GPs and nurses;
Provision of information by GPs; and
Privacy and confidentiality.

We received 208 submissions.

We have now completed our analysis of the feedback and would like to share some of the significant findings.

Overall results

We found that most respondents rated our practice as “very good” or “excellent” (ie. a rating of 4 or 5 out of 5) in all but three of the areas surveyed (car parking, being able to see a doctor at the clinic when you need urgent care, and value for money - these are each discussed in more detail below).

Results were consistently very high across all other areas, and on average, respondents said that the likelihood that they would recommend North Brighton Medical and their usual GP to a friend or family member was 9.37 out of 10.

It’s great to find that most of our patients are very satisfied with the level of health care they receive at our practice and with the service they receive from our doctors, nurses and receptionists.

Comments left by respondents were generally very positive and complimentary of our team members, and we were therefore very pleased with the results.

Being able to see a doctor at the clinic when you need urgent care

We scored relatively lower on the question of “Being able to see a doctor at the clinic when you need urgent care”.

We recognise that there have been times in the past 12 months we have been heavily booked out, so it might have been difficult for you to get urgent care.

We always try to ensure there are enough “on-the-appointments” left in our calendar so that our patients can be seen when needed, but this can be difficult to achieve when doctors are on holiday or sick, plus during busier periods like cold and flu season.

In the past year, we struggled to recruit additional doctors to work at the clinic. Fortunately, we have recently engaged two new doctors, Dr Prachi Dadheech and Dr Peter Semaan, and this means we now have more appointments available generally, including significantly more on-the-day appointments.

Value for money

Another aspect where we did not score as highly was for “Visits to my usual GP are good value for money”. The average score was 3.69 out of 5, which is between “Good” and “Very Good”, so it appears most respondents were reasonably satisfied with the fees paid. However, presumably at least some respondents would prefer if we bulk billed, or if our fees were lower.

We understand that people would prefer to pay less if possible! Our fees are set at a rate which ensures we can see patients for the right amount of time, on-time, and with good quality nursing and reception staff and facilities. Click here to read more about why we don’t bulk bill all our patients.

Ease of Parking

One aspect where we did not score as highly was for “ease of car parking”.

This was unsurprising, as we do not have off-street parking for patients, nor do we have enough off-street parking for all of our staff. Therefore, we are aware that the local streets are often quite full of cars.

Some respondents acknowledged that parking is outside of our control.

Although some patients will have no alternatives to driving, especially during times of ill-health, we ask consideration be made of the following:

Patients who live within a 15-minute walk of the practice might consider walking (or cycling) – indeed, it will sometimes be quicker than finding a car space and then walking to the practice. In addition, the number one health tip our GPs give to patients is to be more active, so walking will have the added advantage of improving your health.
Public transport might be an option for some patients, as we a 2-minute walk from Gardenvale train station and bus routes - see our How to Get Here page for details.
If you do need to drive, we simply ask that you keep the potential parking shortage in mind and give yourself plenty of time to find a parking spot, as this will minimise the chances of you being late for your appointment, which might cause cascading delays to your doctor’s schedule. This is paricularly the case because Martin Street Village is growing - with new buildings being developed, street parking can be temporarily lost or streets closed, decreasing the number of street spaces available. Patients may find more parking available if they try one street further away from the main centre.
Martin Street is also popular for brunch and lunch. If you are driving, we suggest avoiding the lunchtime periods as street parking is busier at these times.

We do appreciate your patience and understanding with regards to parking. We hope that the rest of your experience at our practice makes up the for the inconvenience it sometimes causes.

Conclusion

We would like to again thank everyone who participated in the questionnaire for their valuable contribution to improving our practice.

If you didn’t get a chance to give feedback, or if you would like to give further feedback, please refer to our Feedback and Complaints page.

We look forward to continuing to provide you with quality healthcare.

Justin Meyer, Practice Manager
On behalf of the GPs and staff members at North Brighton Medical