The Care Quality Commission has found the quality of care provided by Southdene Medical Centre, Shotton Colliery to be Outstanding following an inspection carried out in November 2016.
Inspectors rated the practice as Outstanding for safety, effectiveness and well-led and Good for caring and responsiveness. A full report of the inspection has been published on our website.
This is a practice that used innovative and proactive methods to improve patient outcomes. The practice had a high rate of clinical audit for their size,
patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice in the North, Alison Holbourn says:
“This is an impressive service that has a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority. Inspectors could see that there were strong arrangements in place to safeguard adults and children from abuse. For example, they regularly generated a report of children who missed appointments and of children who had injured themselves and attended the A&E department or out of hour’s service. These would be reviewed to identify trends and warnings signs which led to further action."
“The practice had been recognised locally over the years as having a good track record for the prescribing of medication. They were the second lowest prescribers of antibiotics in the locality out of 39 practices. The practice invested in its staff. There was continuing development of staff skills, staff received appropriate training for their roles and appraisals and supervisions were carried out for all staff. The nurse practitioner had been supported to train for this role."
“The practice is extremely well-led. There was constructive engagement with staff and a high level of staff satisfaction. For example, the nursing team told us that when the refurbishment of the practice was planned their wishes were taken into account regarding storage facilities."
“The practice placed a strong emphasis on patient education. In addition to the usual education provided to patients during regular appointments they arranged an education programme with diabetic patients with a local renal consultant in May 2016. The practice monitored the personal diabetes control of the patients who attended this session and found that 38% of patients who attended (eight) lost weight and improved the control of their diabetes This was just one of the many reasons why we have found this practice to be Outstanding and I congratulate everyone.”
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This is an impressive service that has a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority
CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice in the North, Alison Holbourn