We mapped every GP surgery near you — here is where registering is hardest

When we built the Pharmacy & GP Finder, the hardest decision was not technical. It was deciding what we were willing to claim.

What the data actually says

Our source is the NHS Organisation Data Service — the official register of NHS organisations, covering GP practices, pharmacies and dental practices. It is open, it needs no key, and it is authoritative about one specific thing: which organisations exist, and where.

It does not say whether a practice is accepting new patients. It does not say whether they are open now. It does not hold opening hours at all.

That is a real limitation, and it is the one that matters most to someone moving. “There are four GP surgeries within two miles” is useful. “You can register at any of them” would be a claim we cannot support. So the tool says the first thing and refuses to imply the second.

The postcode problem nobody sees

Here is something odd about the register: it holds no coordinates. Every entry has a postcode, but no latitude or longitude.

To put a surgery on a map, we resolve each postcode through postcodes.io in batches. Most resolve. Some do not — usually because a practice has moved, or the postcode has been retired.

We had a choice about those. We could place them approximately, at the centre of the postcode district, which would look complete. Or we could drop them. We drop them, and log how many. A pin in the wrong place is worse than no pin, because someone might drive to it.

What “no dentist nearby” usually means

If our tool shows few or no dentists near a postcode, be careful how you read it. The NHS register covers NHS dental practices. Private practices operate outside it, so an area can look bare while having several private dentists on the high street.

The reverse trap is worse: a listed NHS practice may not have taken a new NHS patient in years. Existence is not availability.

“Nearest” is doing less work than you think

Distance to the closest surgery is the number everyone reaches for, and it is the weakest one on the page.

A surgery 0.4 miles away that closed its list two years ago is worth less to you than one at 1.2 miles that is taking patients. A surgery across a dual carriageway is further than its distance suggests. And if you have a car, the 0.4 versus 1.2 distinction may not matter at all, while the parking outside does.

So we show distance and walking time, because they are honest, measurable and useful — and we do not build a verdict on top of them, because the verdict would rest on things distance does not know.

What to actually do when you move

Register before you need to. Registration can take a couple of weeks, and the worst time to discover a waiting list is when someone is ill.

Move your repeat prescriptions deliberately — they do not follow you automatically when your GP changes. And if you are moving with an ongoing condition, ask your current surgery to send records rather than assuming the transfer is instant.

Why we do not rank areas by “GP access”

We could produce a score. Surgeries per thousand people, average distance, something tidy.

We do not, because the number that would matter — appointment availability — is not published in any form we could use, and a score built from the numbers we do have would be a proxy people would read as the real thing. Better to give you the map, the distances and the honest caveat, and let you ring three surgeries.

Data from the NHS Organisation Data Service. The register records that a service exists — never that it is accepting patients or open at any particular time. Find GPs and pharmacies near a postcode.