New figures reveal which GP surgeries are offering the least number of same-day appointments and which boasts 100% face-to-face consultations.

The government's first ever league table designed to "name and shame" surgeries into seeing more patients in-person is now online and can be used to compare GPs.

Before Covid, doctors were seeing 80% of patients face-to-face. With lockdown came the rapid introduction of telephone triage and video conferencing via Zoom to keep people safe and ensure social distancing.

Many surgeries found it more efficient and have opted to keep at least the telephone triage as the country emerges from the pandemic.

But patients still complain they have trouble booking same-day appointments.

The British Medical Association (BMA), the union representing doctors and medical students, says the data and league tables published by NHS Digital will hit morale among the health service even harder when it is already at "rock bottom".

According to figures for October, the worst of Sittingbourne and Sheppey's 11 surgeries for same-day appointments was Green Porch Medical Centre in Green Porch Close, Kemsley, with just 11.3% (282).

Patients have often complained of trouble getting through by phone and the statistic now confirm it as one of the worst performing in England.

But of the 2,501 who persevered, 2,049 were seen face-to-face (81.9%) and 753 (30.1%) of those were seen by a GP.

By contrast, St George's Surgery in St George's Avenue, Sheerness, claimed to see 100% of its 5,046 patients face-to-face (47.7% with a GP) and topped the poll locally by seeing 2,345 (46.5%) on the same day.

Just a short distance away at the Sheppey Healthy Living Centre off Royal Road, only 21.7% (1,503) were seen by a GP – the worst percentage in Sittingbourne and Sheppey – but it managed to see 34.5% (2,388) on the same day.

Patients at Sheerness Health Centre in the High Street were the most likely to be seen by a GP (54%, 1,948) and more than half (56.9%, 2,466) were seen face-to-face.

Grovehurst Surgery in Grovehurst Road, Kemsley, was a close second with a GP seeing 48.1% (1,948) of patients.

More than three-quarters (76.6%, 3,102) were seen face-to-face and 32.9% (1,332) were seen the same day.

The busy Memorial Medical Centre at Sittingbourne's Memorial Hospital in Bell Road saw the most patients face-to-face at 6,489 out of 10,314 but as a percentage that worked out at nearly lowest at 62.9%.

The lowest percentage was 61.6% (2,076) at the London Road Medical Centre in Sittingbourne of which only 27.7% (934) saw a GP. But 44.3% (1,494) were able to book a same-day appointment.

The national average for face-to-face appointments now stands at 71% – the highest since before the pandemic.

All but three of the area's practices (Sheerness Health Centre, Memorial Medical Centre and London Road) achieved this rate.

The government says the new data will help patients make "more informed choices" about where they want to be treated although Swale is still suffering from an acute shortage of GPs, having one of the highest ratios of patients to GPs in England.

Nationally, one in five patients waited more than two weeks to be seen – an all-time high.

Many of the less serious patients are routinely seen by practice nurses or other clinicians like paramedics to free up doctors for those who need them most.

Across England, there were 31.9 million appointments in general practice in October – 13% more than the previous month.

A spokesman for NHS Kent and Medway said: “All practices across Kent and Medway are working harder than ever before to support patients in the best possible way, and having never been busier, offered more than one million appointments in October.

“Patients are given appointments based on their clinical need, with more urgent cases getting appointments sooner. All are made with the most appropriate clinician, including nurse, GP or physiotherapist, to make sure everyone gets the best possible care.”

Dr Kieran Sharrock, deputy chairman of the General Practitioners Committee England at the BMA, said: "There will obviously be some differences in the way the surgeries operate and how staff provide care for their local communities. Rather than this being a useful tool to aid patient choice, it is really no more than a way to 'name and shame' practices when the morale of dedicated staff is at rock bottom.

"Ultimately, such data should be used to support, not punish practices. If the government was serious about improving access to general practice it would address the huge shortfall in doctors rather than simply piling more pressure and expectation on to the ones that we already have and so desperately need to hang on to."

He called for doctors to see just 25 to 30 patients per day. BMA surveys suggest some family doctors see up to 90 patients per day.