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

Published: 3 July 2015 Page last updated: 12 May 2022
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The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found the quality of care provided by The Castle Medical Centre in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, to be Outstanding following an inspection carried out in March 2015.

Inspectors found that the practice was providing an innovative, caring, effective, 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 The Castle Medical Centre highlights a number of areas of outstanding practice, including:

  • The practice had effective assessment, care planning and recall arrangements for patients with long term conditions. Their emergency admission rates for a number of long term conditions including chronic heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were significantly below the national average.
  • The practice team included a part time pharmacist employed by the practice to support the clinicians in providing safe and effective medicines management. Their role included supporting the GPs and nurses with pharmacy advice and reviewing medication safety alerts to make sure these were acted on in a timely way.
  • The practice attended a weekly multi-disciplinary meeting at a local care home that was involved in an early discharge from hospital initiative. One of the GPs visited patients staying at the home under this scheme every day.
  • Appointments for older patients’ health reviews were 30 minutes long and hour long appointments were booked for those most at risk.

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

“It is clear The Castle Medical Centre is providing an effective, responsive and well led service which is a real asset to the people living in this part of Warwickshire.

“Feedback from patients and clinical teams was excellent and staff went above and beyond their level of duty to care for patients. The practice also had a positive working atmosphere and was committed to continuing to improve services for its patients.

“We found that the practice displayed an excellent understanding of the differing needs of their patients and staff demonstrated a commitment to help and support them. GP trainees inspectors spoke with described an open and

flexible working environment where they felt supported by the partners and were always able to ask for advice.

“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

For media enquiries, call the CQC press office on 020 7448 9401 during office hours or out of hours on 07789 876508. For general enquiries, call 03000 61 61 61.

Find out more

Read our reports about The Castle Medical Centre.

Feedback from patients and clinical teams was excellent and staff went above and beyond their level of duty to care for patients.

Janet Williamson, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice and Dentistry, Central region

About the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England.

We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve.

We monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and we publish what we find to help people choose care.