CQC inspectors find 60 GP practices to be Good or Outstanding

The Care Quality Commission has published a further 75 reports on the quality of care provided by GP practices that have been inspected under its new approach.

Following recent inspections by specialist teams, three of the practices have been rated as Outstanding, 57 have been rated as Good, 10 have been rated Requires Improvement and five have been rated Inadequate.

Under CQC’s new programme of inspections, all of England’s GP practices are being given a rating according to whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.Full reports on all 75 inspections are available on this website.

The three practices which have been rated as Outstanding are:

• Radbrook Green Surgery, Shrewsbury
• St Thomas Health Centre, Exeter   
• Dr P J P Holden & Partners, Matlock, Derbyshire

Professor Nigel Sparrow OBE, CQC's Senior National GP Advisor said:

“We know that the vast majority of England's GPs are providing a service which is safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.  If that is what we find on inspection - we give it a rating of Good, and I congratulate the GPs and staff in these practices.

“Patients should be able to expect high quality and consistent care from every GP practice. Where we have required improvement, we will expect the practice to take the necessary steps to address the issue, and we will return at a later date to check that those improvements have been made."

Three of the five practices which have been rated Inadequate have been placed into special measures. All have been offered a package of support by NHS England to help them improve. The other two practices have been told they will be put into special measures if they fail to improve.

Professor Steve Field, Chief Inspector of General Practice introduced 'special measures' to ensure that poorly-performing GP practices are not allowed to continue to provide inadequate care to patients.

CQC has been working with NHS England and the Royal College of General Practitioners to develop a pilot programme of intensive support to practices that are placed in special measures. If those practices still fail to make progress, their registration will be cancelled.

Since the inspections NHS England have been working closely with local clinical commissioning groups, the providers, and the Care Quality Commission to ensure that services to patients are safe and effective.

Professor Steve Field, Chief Inspector of General Practice, said:

“So far we have published ratings on 143 practices – of which the vast majority have been Good or Outstanding. It is disappointing that we have found any to be Inadequate, but it is important that those practices are offered help at the earliest opportunity to improve.

“In each case, we have found significant areas of concern.  Patients should be able to expect high quality and consistent care from their GP which is why I have put the three practices into special measures. The other two practices have already begun to show signs of improvement but we will monitor their progress closely, returning to inspect in the near future.

“We will only cancel the registration of a GP practice if we think it is absolutely necessary – and in any case our priority will be to help the practice improve, if that is appropriate.   In these situations we will work closely with NHS England who will ensure that people registered at that practice continue to have access to safe and high quality general practice.”

Dr Mike Bewick, Deputy Medical Director, NHS England, said:

“General practice is the bedrock of the NHS and it’s pleasing that the majority of practices inspected are rated good, with some rated outstanding. These inspections are about ensuring that every patient, anywhere across the country, receives consistently high quality services by identifying issues so improvements can be made. And for those in special measures that need extra support, we are working with the GPs, Local Medical Committees and CCGs to help turn the affected practices around, including the offer of additional support from the RCGP.”

Patients registered with the practices being placed into special measures should be aware that the package of support being offered by NHS England and the Royal College of GPs will ensure that there are no immediate risks to patient safety at these GP practices whilst improvements are being made. These practices will not close.

The three practices which have been placed into special measures are:

• Dr Srinivas Dharmana, Queens Drive, Liverpool.  The service was rated Inadequate for being Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led. 
• Dr Michael Florin, Norris Road, Sale, Cheshire.  The service was rated Inadequate for being safe and well-led, Good at caring for patients but required improvement to be responsive and effective.
• Priory Avenue Surgery, Priory Avenue, Caversham, Reading. The service was rated Inadequate for being safe, effective and well-led, and required improvement to be caring and responsive.

The two practices which have been told they will be put into special measures if they fail to improve are:

• Dr Sunil Srivastava, Richmond Medical Centre, Upper Accommodation Road, Leeds.  The service was rated Inadequate for being safe, effective, responsive and  well-led, and required improvement to be caring.
• Widdrington Medical Practitioners, Grange Road, Widdrington, Northumberland.   The service was rated Inadequate for being safe and well-led, and Good for being caring, responsive and effective.

Ends

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