Health minister Mike O'Brien has admitted in an interview with Pulse that the GP Survey (see Blogs, yesterday) fell outside acceptable confidence limits for more than a third of practices on one of the key questions.

The survey was meant to achieve a 7 per cent confidence interval for questions about access to surgeries, but 35 per cent of practices were outside these limits, he said. On another question 10 per cent of practices fell outside the range. Some surgeries may have grounds for appeal if they lose money as a result.

The response to the postal survey were low, particularly on questions of access and ease of arranging appointments, both of which are linked to total practice payments, but Mr O'Brien defended it as "statistically robust".  It has been heavily criticised by the British Medical Association and GPs in Birmingham quoted by Pulse believe that the average practice in the area will have lost £4,000-5,000 as a result of the survey results.