Crowborough GP survey 2026: Beacon 90%, Saxonbury 70%

Patients at Groombridge and Hartfield Medical Group gave their practice one of the highest ratings in the country in this year’s national GP Patient Survey: 99% of those who answered described their overall experience as good, against a national figure of 77%. Beacon Surgery on Beacon Road, Crowborough, scored 90%. Saxonbury House Surgery on Croft Road scored 70%, and Rotherfield Surgery, listed in the survey at The Brook Health Centre on Crowborough Hill, 66%. (GP Patient Survey 2026, practice results)

The survey is the official annual measure of what patients think of their GP practice. This year’s results were published on 9 July 2026 and are based on questionnaires sent out between 2 January and 13 April 2026; 654,714 patients aged 16 and over responded across England. Nationally, 76.7% rated their overall experience of their practice as good and 56.9% said it was easy to get through on the phone. (Ipsos, 9 July 2026; GOV.UK official statistics)

We pulled the published practice-level results for the 11 surgeries nearest Crowborough. Each practice’s figures rest on roughly 90 to 130 returned questionnaires (Beacon 114, Saxonbury House 102, Rotherfield 100, Groombridge and Hartfield 120), so a few points either way is noise; a gap of 20 or 30 points is not.

Overall experience, ranked

Sources: GP Patient Survey 2026 practice pages for Groombridge and Hartfield, Woodhill, Beacon, Ashdown Forest, The Meads, Bird-in-Eye, Wealden Ridge, Saxonbury House, Rotherfield, Wadhurst and Buxted. Percentages are as published, rounded to whole numbers; the “ICS” row is the Surrey and Sussex integrated care system that now covers East Sussex.

The two Crowborough surgeries are a long way apart on access

The gap between Beacon and Saxonbury House is almost entirely about getting in, not about the care once you are in.

On the phone question, 64% of Beacon respondents said it was easy to get through, against 25% at Saxonbury House. On the experience of contacting the practice, Beacon scored 84% good and Saxonbury House 55%. Beacon patients were also more likely to say they waited about the right length of time for their last appointment (85% against 71%). (Beacon Surgery results; Saxonbury House results)

Once patients were seen, both practices scored well. At Saxonbury House, 96% had confidence and trust in the healthcare professional they saw and 98% felt their needs were met; at Beacon the figures were 98% and 97%. Beacon’s reception and administrative team was rated helpful by 95% of respondents, Saxonbury’s by 75%. (Beacon; Saxonbury House)

Rotherfield Surgery sat with Saxonbury House on contact (55% good) and phones (36%), and 87% of its respondents had confidence and trust in the clinician they saw. (Rotherfield Surgery results)

Groombridge and Hartfield: near the top of the country

Groombridge and Hartfield Medical Group, which runs from The Nook on Withyham Road in Groombridge and covers Hartfield, recorded 99% good overall experience, 96% good on contacting the practice, 93% finding the phones easy and 99% rating reception helpful. Every one of its 119 respondents to the question had confidence and trust in the healthcare professional they saw, and every one felt their needs were met. On the question of usually getting to see the healthcare professional you would prefer, it scored 70%, against 42% nationally, though only 50 people answered that question. (Groombridge and Hartfield results)

Woodhill Surgery in Mayfield was close behind at 91% overall and 89% on phones. (Woodhill Surgery results)

Digital contact is still weak locally

The national headline this year was the growth in people using the NHS App and practice websites: 30.8% of patients nationally last tried to contact their practice online, up from 22.4% in 2025, and 57.6% found their practice website easy to use for getting in touch, with 54.3% saying the same of the NHS App. (Ipsos)

The Crowborough practices are behind that. Beacon scored 47% on the website and 42% on the app, Saxonbury House 33% and 36%, and Rotherfield 20% and 25%, all on small numbers of respondents (between 30 and 78 per question), so treat them as indicative. Groombridge and Hartfield (85% and 87%), Ashdown Forest Health Centre in Forest Row (60% and 66%) and Wealden Ridge in Heathfield (73% on the app) were the local practices above the national figures. (Groombridge and Hartfield; Beacon; Saxonbury House; Rotherfield; Ashdown Forest; Wealden Ridge)

How the survey works

Ipsos runs the survey for NHS England. Questionnaires go to a random sample of registered patients at every practice in England, by post with an online option; this year 566,443 of the 654,714 responses were completed online, and the national response rate was 22.1%. Locally, Beacon Surgery had 300 questionnaires sent out and 114 returned (38%), Saxonbury House 281 sent and 102 returned (36%), Rotherfield 342 sent and 100 returned (29%), and Groombridge and Hartfield 261 sent and 120 returned (46%). (Ipsos; practice results pages)

The results are weighted to reflect each practice’s registered population, and answers such as “I don’t know” are excluded before percentages are calculated. A practice’s overall score is the share of respondents answering “very good” or “fairly good”.

What it means for you

• You can look up your own practice. The GP Patient Survey practice search shows every question for every practice, with the local area and national figures alongside.
• If phones are the problem, the survey shows the alternatives are not yet trusted here. Under half of Beacon and Saxonbury respondents found the website or NHS App easy to use for contact. If you have not tried the online route since the last time it frustrated you, the national figures suggest it is improving year on year.
• Registering with a different practice depends on where you live. Each practice publishes its catchment area on its own website; check it before assuming you can move.
• These figures are the baseline for next year. Fieldwork for the next survey normally begins in January; if you receive a questionnaire, returning it is the only way your practice’s number moves.

For the town’s other running stories, see our planning news page and what’s on in Crowborough.