Birmingham GP surgery is rated as Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission has found the quality of care provided by Ridgacre House Surgery in Quinton, Birmingham, to be Outstanding following an inspection in March.

Inspectors found the practice was providing a safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led service that meets the needs of the population it serves.

A full report of the inspection has now been published.

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 Ridgacre House Surgery highlights a number of areas of outstanding practice, including:

• The service had developed a reporting tool for incidents and significant events which risk rated incidents. The tool had been adopted by other practices within the local clinical network and had been recognised by the CCG as improving reporting.
• The practice had high levels of incident reporting (148 in the last 12 months). High reporting is viewed positively as it enables the practice to identify trends, reflect on incidents that occurred and learn from them. Weekly clinical governance meeting ensured incidents and significant events underwent regular review and were acted on.
• The service was a key player in the CCG for driving innovation and developments for service improvement. Schemes developed by the provider that had been adopted by others included: ambulance triage in which GPs gave advice and support to paramedics at the scene to reduce unnecessary referrals to A&E and provide more appropriate care.
• The practice worked with hospital services and the drug workers team to combine hepatitis C treatment for relevant patients with the treatment for substance misuse. By combining the treatments it was felt patients were more likely to comply. This approach successfully led to the eradication of hepatitis C in three patients.
• The provider had operated an internal triage referral system for ten years, during which time over 4000 referrals had been reviewed by colleagues to improve the accuracy of referrals across both of their sites.

Janet Williamson, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice and Dentistry in CQC’s Central region said:

“It is clear Ridgacre House Surgery is providing an effective, responsive and well led service which is a real asset to the people living in this part of Birmingham.

“The practice used innovative and proactive methods to improve patient outcomes and had worked with other local providers to share best practice. Patient feedback was very positive about the standard of care received. Patients described staff as friendly, and said that they felt listened to and were treated with dignity and respect.

“The practice had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority. Strong governance arrangements with clear staff roles supported the running of the service and service improvement.

“There was a GP lead for the care of older people and for managing patients who were identified as having complex care needs and at risk of admission to hospital. “Patients with long term conditions received regular reviews of their conditions to check their health and medical needs were being met.

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

Ends

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