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One in seven practices told they require improvement by CQC

Around 14% of practices have been told they required improvement by the CQC following the first rounds of inspections, the regulator has announced today.

The CQC released details about 50 practices today, finding that seven had been told they require improvement, while one was rated outstanding, with the rest rated as good.

It follows the first two reports it released last year, which gave both practices a rating of outstanding.

The new inspection process was introduced in October, with each practice being given an ‘Ofsted-style’ rating of ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’.

No practices were rated as inadequate.

Professor Nigel Sparrow, CQC’s Senior National GP Advisor said: ‘We know that the vast majority of England’s GPs are providing a service which is safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.  If that is what we find on inspection – we give it a rating of good, and I congratulate the GPs and staff in these practices.

‘Patients should be able to expect high quality and consistent care from every GP practice. Where we have required improvement, we will expect the practice to take the necessary steps to address the issue, and we will return at a later date to check that those improvements have been made.’

It comes after the CQC published its ‘intelligent monitoring’ data based on QOF achievement and patient survey scores, which it claimed showed that one in six practices were ‘at risk’ of providing poor care.

It used the scores to prioritise which practices should be inspected, with those ‘at risk’ being inspected first.

A Pulse analysis of the practice ratings revealed that three practices rated as risky by the intelligent monitoring data were found to be ‘good’, with five more found to require improvement.

It also revealed that two practices given the highest intelligent monitoring scores were found to be inadequate, while a further 35 given the highest scores were rated as ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’.

Dr Robert Morley, chair of the GPC’s contracts and regulations subcommittee, said: ‘The overwhelming majority of practices are providing what CQC determine to be “good care” even better.

‘By the incredibly tough and far-reaching criteria that the CQC uses to determine that a practice is good rather than “requires improvement”  in the incredibly difficult circumstances under which practices are currently having to work this once again confirms the absolutely fantastic job that GPs and their practice staff are doing for patients and the NHS across the country.’