Salford GP practice rated as Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission has found the quality of care provided by The Heights General Practice to be Outstanding following an inspection carried out in August.

Inspectors rated the practice as Outstanding for responsiveness and well-led and Good for safety, caring and effectiveness.

A full report of the inspection has been published on our website.

Some of the features from the inspection included:

The practice used innovative and proactive methods to improve patient outcomes through working with other local providers to share best practice. This practice used ‘chaperone bubbles’ (chaperone bubbles are notices attached to the GPs desk informing patients chaperone were available) were implemented within the practice which led to an increase in the number of patients requesting a chaperone.

The practice worked closely with other organisations such as Age UK and also the local community in planning how services were provided to ensure that they met patients’ needs.

CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice in the North, Alison Holbourn, said:

“The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs that had clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it then acted on."

“The practice had identified that there were a number of patients suffering from financial hardship. In response to this the practice initiated a local foodbank and had collected food donations that had provided food to over 3000 people; 1200 of which were children."

“The surgery was doing outstanding work in the community in that it had recognised that loneliness can impact on the health and wellbeing of its patient population and had addressed this through community support approaches. This had been driven by the practice and the PPG."

The surgery and the Patient Participation Group had produced a comprehensive newsletter which had been distributed across the population, offering patient transport to those who had difficulty in attending the practice and facilitating social events both in the practice and the local community hall. It was very encouraging to see that this had reduced social isolation and increased well-being for some patients. The practice is to be congratulated on this and many other initiatives that have helped them gain their outstanding rating.

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For further information, please contact David Fryer, Regional Communications Manager - North, on 07754 438750.

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