St Ives GP surgery rated Outstanding by Care Quality Commission

England’s Chief Inspector of General Practice has rated a GP surgery in St Ives as Outstanding following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Under CQC’s 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.

Inspectors rated the services provided by The Stennack Surgery from St Ives, Cornwall as Outstanding for being responsive and well led. A full report of the inspection in October 2015 has been published today.

The report highlights a number of areas of outstanding practice, including:

• Innovative approaches are used to gather feedback from patients and improving the service. The relationship with the Patient Participation Group (PPG) is effective and collaborative, with members actively involved in delivering services closer to home for patients in the practice. PPG members act as ‘Ambassadors’, seeking out patient feedback and actively helping them access support in their communities.
• The practice taking a truly holistic approach to assessing, planning and delivering care and treatment to people who use services. In particular, vulnerable older patients and those with chronic health conditions were closely monitored by a dedicated specialist nurse who did home visits and provided early interventions to reduce the risk of unplanned hospital admissions.
• The practice having a strong vision which had quality and effective care and treatment as its top priority. Stennack Surgery has embraced the concept of living well and is facilitating the integration of services to specifically bring care and treatment closer to home for patients. For example, the practice was setting up a branch surgery, with an attached pharmacy, in Carbis Bay as a result of patient feedback about the needs of the local community there.

Ruth Rankine, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice, said:

"We found that the Stennack Surgery is providing an Outstanding service, particularly for people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable.

“I was particularly impressed with practice’s work to initiate a truly holistic service for patients. We found that staff demonstrated a sound understanding of the differing needs of their patients and acted on these needs in the planning and delivery of its services

“The surgery staff have demonstrated a real commitment to their patients.

“All of this hard work and dedication pays off in making a real difference for their patents – which is why we have found this practice to be Outstanding.”

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

“I am delighted to highlight the exceptional standard of care which is being provided at The Stennack Surgery.

"Throughout the inspection we were particularly impressed by the way the practice worked with the public to shape its service to meet the needs of its patient groups.

"The GPs and all their staff deserve the credit for this Outstanding service."

Julia Cory, Head of Primary Care for NHS England in the South West, said:

“This is a great tribute to the hard work at the Stennack Surgery, which was formed when three small practices joined forces ten years ago. It demonstrates their determination to continually look for ways to improve and develop. They have a forward thinking approach to primary care and the ‘outstanding’ rating truly reflects this, showing just what can be achieved and how it is the patients at Stennack Surgery who ultimately benefit.

Ends

For further information please contact John Scott, CQC Regional Engagement Manager, on 07789875809. For media enquiries, journalists wishing to speak to the press office outside of office hours can find out how to contact the team here. For general enquiries, please call 03000 61 61 61.