- GP practice
Dr Watson & Partners Also known as The Friarwood Surgery
Assessment report published 22 January 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of Assessment: 7 January 2026 to 8 January 2026. Dr Watson Partners, also known as Friarwood Surgery, is a GP practice which delivers services to around 13,200 patients under a contract held with NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board. The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices within the Pontefract and Knottingley primary care network (PCN). This comprises a partnership of GP practices who work together to improve patient care within their locality. The practice is open between 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday (from 7.30am daily for early nurse appointments). The practice offers a range of appointment types including face-to-face consultations, telephone consultations, online/video consultations, and home visits. Extended access is provided locally through PCN working, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by Local Care Direct Limited.
The clinical team consists of 5 GP partners, and 4 salaried GPs. Other members of the clinical team include 2 advanced nurse practitioners, 1 advanced care practitioner, 3 practice nurses, 3 healthcare assistants, 2 phlebotomists, 1 pharmacist, and 1 in-house pharmacy technician. Other clinical capacity is provided by PCN pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. The clinical team is supported by a practice manager, an assistant practice manager, prescription clerks, secretaries and members of the administration and reception teams. The practice is able to access other PCN support such as a health and wellbeing coach, and additional pharmacy team capacity.
Dr Watson Partners is also a training practice which supports the development of GP registrars, medical students, and student nurses.
Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the fourth lowest decile (4 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others. The National General Practice Profiles states that the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 96.6% White, 1.4% Asian, 0.6% Black, 0.9% mixed, and 0.5% Other.
This assessment considered the demographics of the people using the service, the context the service was working within and how this impacted service delivery.
We completed an announced assessment of Dr Watson Partners on 7 and 8 January 2026. This was due to the last inspection rating of requires improvement in the key question of responsive.
We found at this latest assessment that people were involved in decisions about their care. The service provided information people could understand. People knew how to give feedback and were confident the service took it seriously and acted on it. The service was accessible, and worked to eliminate discrimination. People received fair and equal care and treatment. The service worked to reduce health and care inequalities through training and feedback. People were involved in planning their care and understood options around choosing to withdraw or not receive care. The responsive key question is now rated as good.
People's experience of this service
Overall, people were positive in respect of how responsive the service was to meeting their care and treatment needs. Recent survey results, including from the National GP Patient Survey and the NHS Friends and Family Test, showed people were generally satisfied with services. Results from the National GP Patient Survey for 2025 showed that 95% of 114 responses felt their needs were met during their last general practice appointment compared to local and national averages of 90%. Results regarding the ability to contact the practice were mixed with 63% of respondents finding it easy to contact the practice via the website (local average 50% and national average 51%), whilst only 40% of respondents found it easy to contact the practice via the telephone (local average 51% and national average 53%). However, it is recognised that this figure of 40% for ease of telephone contact has improved significantly from the figure of 21.5% achieved during our last inspection of the service in 2023. NHS Friends and Family Test results were very positive with 97% of respondents over the last 12 months rating the practice as good or very good.
There was an active patient participation group (PPG) who represented the views of people using the service. Representatives from the PPG described how the provider listened to them, and gave an example of how they worked together to produce and distribute a simple guide to patients on how to access appointments.