CQC inspectors find Cartmel Surgery to be Outstanding in the services provided to the local population

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found the quality of care provided by Dr S D Milligan & Dr H M Lovatt also known as Cartmel Surgery in Grange Over Sands, Cumbria, to be Outstanding following an inspection in April 2016.

This is a real achievement by the practice and a fantastic resource for the people of Grange Over Sands, to have on their doorstep.

Under CQC’s programme of inspections, all of England’s GP practices are being given a rating in five key areas, are they; safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.The services provided by Dr S D Milligan & Dr H M Lovatt have been rated as Outstanding overall.

A full report of the inspection has been published.

Patients said they were truly respected and valued as individuals and were empowered as partners in their care. Patient satisfaction with their care was much higher than local and national averages. For example, in the National GP Patient Survey 97% of patients said the last GP they saw was good at involving them in decisions about their care, compared to the national average of 82%.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

• A strong, person-centred approach to supporting carers and those they cared for. For example, people who were cared for were given a “hospital passport” for use in emergency admissions to hospital. This contained the carer’s contact details, as well as information which could assist staff in secondary care with personalised care planning.
• The practice worked with the local primary school to offer an annual “treat teddy” session to pupils to promote awareness about health issues and their treatment.
• The practice used key indicators based on guidance from the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) to measure and drive improvement in the care of diabetes. This was in response to data which showed the practice had a higher than local average prevalence of the disease, but that overall performance for diabetic patients was average. Data from 2015/16 showed improvements not only in each individual SIGN indicator, but also in the number of patients who were meeting all the identified targets.

Sue McMillan, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice in the North, said:

"It is clear Dr S D Milligan & Dr H M Lovatt are providing a caring and responsive which is a real asset to the people living in this part of Cumbria. To get rated as Outstanding is a real achievement.

“The practice had a clear vision, which had being responsive to people’s needs as its top priority and this is reflected in everything that they do.

“It was extremely impressive to see the extent of their collaboration with partner organisations to ensure all the needs of people using this service were being met. This included above and beyond their immediate medical care and extended to their wellbeing. This included the carers lead working with local and national organisations to provide carers with support. Examples of this included helping to source financial advice, support acquiring equipment, and working with the local fire service to provide carers with fire safety checks at their homes.

“This is a great example of what outstanding care looks like.”

Professor Steve Field, Chief Inspector of General Practice said:

“All of this hard work and dedication pays off in making a real difference for their patients – which is why we have found this practice to be Outstanding.”

Our inspection team was led by a CQC Lead Inspector. The team included a GP specialist adviser and a pharmacist specialist adviser.

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For further information please contact CQC Regional Communications Officer Kerri James by email kerri.james@cqc.org.uk or by phone on 07464 92 9966.

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