GP practices get the thumbs up

Chesterfield practices Ashover Medical Centre and St. Philip’s Drive Surgery were given clean bills of health on five out of five counts while Arden House Medical Practice, New Mills was found to have room for improvement in just one category.

The findings by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) after routine inspections were welcomed this week by NHS North Derbyshire Clinical Commissioning Group, which plans and buys healthcare for nearly 290,000 patients in the area.

Dr Ben Milton, Chair of NHS North Derbyshire CCG, said:

“The CQC’s verdicts have confirmed that patients in North Derbyshire are receiving first class care from skilled and dedicated health professionals.

“The findings show that our practices care about their patients and understand their needs. However, we recognise there is no room for complacency so we will continue to strive, as always, to ensure that the level of patient care is of the highest standard.”

All three practices were praised for:

Caring for their patients

Respecting patients and involving them in decisions about their care

Safeguarding patients and staff.

They were also saluted for health and safety standards of buildings and equipment.

Ashover Medical Centre, as a dispensing practice in a rural area, also met the CQC’s standards for management of medicines.

Arden House Medical Practice has already implemented a recommendation to put better systems in place to ensure that actions are taken to improve the monitoring of service quality.

The inspectors’ findings were endorsed by 83-year-old John Wardle, a patient of Ashover Medical Centre:

“Our population is older than the national average so the practice has its work cut out but it does a great job – it’s an essential part of the village.”

Inspectors saw people being cared for, talked with patients and staff, and looked at treatment records.