Salford Health Matters, Eccles is rated as Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission has found the quality of care provided by the Salford Health Matters in Eccles to be Outstanding following an inspection carried out in October 2014.

The practice is rated as Outstanding - it is an effective, responsive and well-led service that provides and meets the needs of the population it serves. It is safe; staff understand and fulfil their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses.

The practice is using innovative and proactive methods to improve patient outcomes and it links with other local providers to share best practice. Read the full report of the inspection.

Under CQC’s new 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 Salford Health Matters highlights a number of areas of outstanding practice including:

• All patients who require an appointment with a GP are seen on the day their request is made. Requests can be made at any time of the day, and the practice has late night and weekend opening so patients not available during working hours can access appointments easily.
• Appointment length is need-specific so GPs arrange longer appointments when they think this is necessary. Longer appointments are routinely offered to some patients, for example patients with a learning disability.
• Patients have the facility to attend another practice within the group that has different late night or a different Saturday opening if this is more convenient for them.

Professor Steve Field, Chief Inspector of General Practice said:

“Our inspectors found the practice had initiated positive service improvements for their patients that were over and above their contractual obligations. The practice had implemented suggestions for improvements and made changes to the way it delivered services as a consequence of feedback directly from patients and from the patient participation group (PPG).

“The practice had reviewed the needs of their local population and engaged with other services in the area, including the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). This had helped to secure service improvements where these had been identified. The practice took the care of vulnerable people seriously. A GP from the practice attended a drop-in centre three times a week and homeless patients had access to that GP without an appointment. All patients could access the practice for appointments if they preferred.

“Patients said they were routinely asked for their opinion after consultations or by text messages a few days later. They said they thought this was so improvements could be made. They said staff were helpful and treated them with dignity and respect.

“The practice is using innovative and proactive methods to improve patient outcomes and it links with other local providers to share best practice. As well as discussing significant events with staff, they are discussed with people outside the practice so that ideas for improvement can be shared. All of this, combined with the excellent practice inspectors found, makes this practice, Outstanding.”