There are very few people who don't have an opinion about their GP surgery. It's an issue which touches most of our lives at some time or other. Often the procedures in place are deemed to be unsatisfactory by those on the receiving end who claim they can't get to see a doctor when they want to or are kept hanging on at the end of a telephone while trying to secure a same-day appointment.

Steps have been taken to cut the congestion at the surgeries by encouraging people to contact NHS Direct by telephone and sort out their problems that way, or to ask a pharmacist about minor problems. But family doctors remain a vital part of the NHS, the first port of call for most people with concerns about their health.

Now, thanks to the Quality and Outcome Framework, patients will be able to see whether or not their perception of the performance of their local surgery matches up to the official version as assessed via data collected by the NHS (or at least they will be able to do so once the details of individual clinics are made available through the Health & Social Care Information Centre website, which unfortunately was taken ill itself on the day they were released).

The Primary Care Trusts in Bradford and Airedale are declaring themselves generally satisfied with their results and in some cases proud of them. Only the patients can decide whether those results are a just reflection of the situation at their surgery or the positively-spun product of a bureaucratic exercise.