- GP practice
Highlands Surgery
Report from 17 March 2025 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Highlands Surgery is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities: diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services, family planning, treatment of disease, disorder or injury, and surgical procedures. The practice is situated within the Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System (ICS) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 14,600. This is part of a contract held with NHS England. The practice is part of a Primary Care Network with one other local practice. Information published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the 10th decile (10 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others. This assessment considered the demographics of the patients using the service, the context the service was working within and how this impacted service delivery.
We carried out an announced assessment from 19 May 2025 to 21 May 2025 covering quality statements under the Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led key questions.
People's experience of this service
People were positive about the quality of their care and treatment. Recent survey results, including from the National GP Patient Survey and the NHS Friends and Family Test, showed people’s experience of the of the service was extremely positive overall. The practice shared the previous 12 months data from Friends and Family that was consistently positive. There was an active patient participation group, (PPG) comprising in excess of 200 active members who represented the views of people using the service interacted both virtually and in person. Representatives from the PPG described how leaders made positive changes because of feedback, such as implementing a variety of support measures for those patients who found it difficult to use digital technology. As a result of this the practice saw an increase in the number of patients registered to use the NHS APP and at the time of assessment, 65% of the total patient list were registered and actively using the NHS App. Representatives also talked about meaningful joint working between the PPG and the practice leadership team to improve patient care. We saw evidence that face-to-face monthly PPG meetings had a regular attendance of between 20 -30 members and that a monthly online information exchange included approximately 200 additional patients. The practice and the PPG actively promoted the benefits of the PPG and encouraged new members to join resulting in continued membership growth.