The Care Quality Commission has found the quality of care provided by the Gosforth Memorial Medical Centre to be Outstanding following an inspection carried out in March 2016.
Inspectors rated the practice as Outstanding for effectiveness and responsiveness, and Good for safety, caring and well-led. A full report of the inspection has been published.
Under CQC’s programme of inspections, all England’s GP practices are being given a rating according to whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.
Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. They were also able to get an appointment with a GP when they needed one, with urgent appointments available the same day.
The report on the Gosforth Memorial Medical Centre highlights a number of areas of outstanding practice including:
- The practice was the preferred practice for patients who lived in a local community based home for patients with chronic mental illness (13 patients). Services were tailored to meet those patients’ individual needs. Inspectors were told about several examples of how staff from the practice positively engaged with the patients and had built up relationships.
- This had resulted in staff being able to carry out routine checks for the patients, which in turn had resulted in a number of new diagnoses, including diabetes and skin problems, which were subsequently addressed by the practice
- The practice engaged with a group of patients with learning disabilities to carry out a ‘health quality check’ of the practice. A team of health quality checkers visited the practice, looked at the premises and spoke with staff. The health checkers commented positively on the practice.
- One of the healthcare assistants was the first point of contact for patients on the learning disability register. They had built up a rapport with patients and their carers. As a result of this work, 35 out of 36 patients had received their annual health check during the previous 12 months.
Sue McMillan CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice in the North says:
“The outcomes for patients at Gosforth Memorial with long term conditions were consistently better than national averages, feedback from patients was overwhelmingly positive.
“I was particularly impressed with the manner in which the practice engaged with difficult-to-reach patient groups such as those with chronic mental illness, older people and people with learning disabilities. There was clear and demonstrable evidence that patient outcomes were improving.
“Patients said they were able to get an appointment with a GP when they needed one, with urgent appointments available the same day. Extended hours surgeries were offered between 6.30pm and 7.30pm every Monday and Wednesday evening.
“Morale amongst staff throughout the practice was good and people worked well together as a team, one of the many reasons why we have found this practice to be Outstanding.”
Ends
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Find out more
Read our reports about the Gosforth Memorial Medical Centre.
I was particularly impressed with the manner in which the practice engaged with difficult-to-reach patient groups such as those with chronic mental illness, older people and people with learning disabilities.
Sue McMillan, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice in the North