THE majority of Bradford's GP surgeries are of low concern to the country's health watchdog as it draws up a timetable for in-depth inspections across England.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) will visit surgeries based on priority and concern - but most of those in the local district have been deemed to be in least need of urgent inspection.

Statistics and surveys about patient experience, care and treatment have been analysed to put every practice in a band between one and six - where one represents the highest perceived concern.

Issues such as appointment availability and how GPs treat patients were considered.

Nationally, 78 per cent of practices are in the four bands of least concern. Of the 85 GP surgeries in the Bradford area, 81 per cent are in those four categories, while 12 per cent - or ten surgeries - are deemed to be of highest concern in band one.

Healthwatch Bradford and District, which aims to share patients' views, said it was concerned, that some GP practices had been flagged for urgent inspection.

"However, it is not surprising to Healthwatch to see GP access flagged in the CQC report as a critical issue because we have been hearing about these problems for some time from people across our district," said a spokesman.

Practices in the Bradford district fall under three Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) areas.

In the Bradford City CCG area, which covers the city centre and areas including Frizinghall, Little Horton and Barkerend, 76 per cent of practices are in the four bands of least concern and 12 per cent - or three surgeries - are in level one.

Of practices in the Bradford Districts CCG area - which covers outer areas including Low Moor, Wibsey, Saltaire and Tong - 82 per cent are in the lowest priority bands and 15 per cent - or six practices - are in level one.

A spokesman for the two CCGs said: "All our member GP practices want to continually improve the quality of care they provide to patients, and we are working with many of them to look at ways to improve waiting times and access to services."

He said work including a scheme to encourage people to visit pharmacies more and introducing telephone appointments had improved GP access.

In the Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven CCG area, 84 per cent of practices are in the lowest categories of concern and just one surgery has listed as a priority.

The CQC was keen to stress it can only judge the quality of care once it has carried out an inspection, but the analysis indicated which services appeared to be doing well.

The deputy medical director at NHS England Mike Bewick said: "As with all parts of the NHS there is some variation, this data will help GPs understand where there could be improvement."

People can search for information in their practice at www.cqc.org.uk/content/our-intelligent-monitoring-gp-practices.