New figures show that almost a third of GP practices are likely to provide poor care.

The Care Quality Commission, the NHS watchdog responsible for inspecting GP surgeries, placed practices across the country into six bands, with band one being "most at risk of providing poor care".

In Enfield, 14 of the 48 GPs were in the lowest two bands.

Eleven of those GPs were placed in band one, making 22 per cent of surgeries across the borough.

Nationally, just eleven per cent of were classed as “most at risk of providing poor care”, half the amount in Enfield.

However, the figures also show that 21 of Enfield's 48 GP surgeries were in the top two bands for providing good care.

There was insufficient datea for three of the GP surgeries inspected, Ordnance Road surgery, Edmonton walk-in GP and Enfield Island surgery, so they were not rated.

Lorna Reith, chief executive of health watchdog Healthwatch Enfield, said she was “disappointed" with the findings.

She said: "It is disappointing that so many practices appear to be providing poor quality care, though this does confirm what we have heard from patients in Enfield. We do also get positive feedback from patients and note that this is also reflected in the CQC listing.  

“We believe this new system will assist the CQC to target their inspection visits and look forward to continuing to work with them to improve services for patients.”

Professor Steve Field, the CQC's chief inspector of general practice, added: “There is a lot of good and outstanding care taking place across the country as our data and recent reports show.

“It is important to remember that the data is not a judgement as it is only when we inspect we can determine if a practice provides safe, high-quality and compassionate care. “The data is a further tool that will help us to decide where to inspect and when.”