- GP practice
Merchiston Surgery
Report from 16 January 2026 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of assessment: 2 March to 5 March 2026.
Merchiston Surgery is a GP practice and delivers services to approximately 13,500 people under a contract held with NHS England. The National General Practice Profiles state that the service has a higher-than-average number of registered people aged over 60. Information published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation in the service’s population group is in the 8th decile (8 out of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the population is relative to others.
This assessment considered the demographics of the people using the service, the context the service was working within and how this impacted service delivery. Where relevant, further commentary is provided in the quality statements section of this report.
This assessment covered 4 quality statements within the Safe and Well-led key questions to follow up on a previous breach of regulation from our assessment in July 2025. Since the last assessment, the service had made improvements and is no longer in breach of the legal regulation relating to good governance.
Following our last assessment, the service has implemented a series of actions to address concerns relating to clinical supervision, staff training, infection prevention and control processes, and overall governance arrangements. This included strengthening internal and external cleaning arrangements, introducing a new system to monitor staff training and compliance, scheduling regular staff supervisions, and establishing clearer speaking up arrangements.
People's experience of this service
Recent survey results, including from the National GP Patient Survey and the NHS Friends and Family Test (FFT), showed people’s overall feedback was lower than National and local averages. This indicated it was not easy for people to access services including via telephone, through the website and via NHS app. The service regularly reviewed feedback from people who used the service, identifying themes and trends in monthly governance meetings. The service had 1 active participant for the patient participation group (PPG) and were currently in the process of recruiting new members, to better represent the views of people using the service.