Shropshire GP practice is rated Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission has found the quality of care provided by the Belvidere Medical Practice, Shrewsbury to be Outstanding following an inspection carried out in June 2015.

Inspectors rated the practice as outstanding for, caring and responsiveness and good for well led, safety and effectiveness. A full report of the inspection has been published today.

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.

The report on Belvidere Medical Practice highlights a number of areas of outstanding practice including:

• The practice employed a care co-ordinator to support and facilitate care for vulnerable patients. For example, the practice had identified 110 frail and vulnerable patients registered with their practice and 96 of these patients had an agreed care plan in place.
• The surgery provided extended hours appointments. These were available with the GPs, the respiratory nurse and the practice’s counselling service.
• The practice employed a counsellor for patients experiencing mental health difficulties such as low mood, depression and anxiety. For 2014-2015 the practice had made 57 referrals to this service and 317 counselling sessions had been provided for these patients. Fifty-two out of 62 patients with a diagnosis of dementia had received an annual health review in the last 12 months.

There were some areas of the practice where the provider needed to make improvements, including:

• The practice should introduce a system to review significant events over time to identify any trends in the type of incidents occurred.
• Ensure that all the staff receive regular appraisals.

Janet Williamson, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice said:

“The care we observed at the practice really was excellent. It sets a very high standard that every GP practice should seek to attain.

“There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from patients, which it acted on. I was impressed with the personalised care. Patients said they were treated with empathy, kindness, dignity and respect and they were involved in decisions about their care and treatment. The GPs told us, and we saw, that they personally fetched patients from the waiting room rather than use an electronic calling system.

“This is an excellent well-led GP practice The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.”

Ends

For media enquiries, Helen Gildersleeve 0191 233 3379 or call the CQC press office on 020 7448 9401 during office hours or out of hours on 07917 232 143. For general enquiries, call 03000 61 61 61.