Priti Patel MP welcomes substantial improvements at Silver End Surgery
Witham MP, Priti Patel, has welcomed the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) latest inspection report for Silver End Surgery which has rated the practice as ‘good’ overall, following an inspection in April. The practice was previously rated as ‘requires improvement’ in January 2018.
The practice, which is run by Virgin Care, has received significant support from Mid Essex Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and NHS England since January 2018 to facilitate improvements for patients through monthly monitoring meetings. Virgin Care also receives extra funding for services, around 60 per cent more than the standard payment other GP practices receive. Ms Patel has maintained close contact with the CCG over the past year to ensure that the action plan in place was addressing the concerns raised by the CQC and delivering better quality services for patients.
Commenting on the CQC’s findings, Priti Patel said: “Fifteen months after the CQC’s damning report into Silver End Surgery and Virgin Care, I am delighted to see that considerable improvements have been made at the practice to improve patient safety, care and treatment. I have been working closely with Mid Essex CCG and NHS England to secure essential service improvements for local patients and ensure that Virgin Care were delivering remedial actions in a proper and timely manner.
“Good progress has been made over the past year with the support of the CCG and NHS England, but there is still work to be done and Virgin Care and the NHS must not become complacent. They must strive for continual improvement and better ratings across the board in, all areas of inspection. I am due to visit Silver End Surgery in the coming weeks and I look forward to meeting with the team to discuss this report and the future actions they will be taking to improve responsiveness and appointment availability for patients”.
The CQC reports that Silver End Surgery has made considerable improvements to care and patient safety standards over the past 15 months and the practice scored a ‘good’ rating in four of the five categories of the inspection: safe, effective, caring and well-led. The practice’s responsiveness to services remained as ‘requires improvement’.
Notes
The CQC report is available at: https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-2809558782