The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found the quality of care provided by The Springhead Medical Centre in Hull, Humberside to be Outstanding 
following an inspection in March 2016. This is a real achievement by the practice and a fantastic resource for the people of Hull to have on their doorstep.
Under CQC’s programme of inspections, all of England’s GP practices are being given a rating in five key areas, are they; safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led. The services provided by The Springhead Medical Centre have been rated as Outstanding overall.
A full report of the inspection has been published here.
The practice had a clear vision with quality and safety as its top priority. The strategy to deliver this vision had been produced with stakeholders and was regularly reviewed and discussed with staff.
Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and were involved in their care and decisions about treatment. Discussions with staff and feedback from patients’ demonstrated staff were highly motivated and were inspired to offer care that was kind, caring and supportive and that met the needs of the population.
We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:
- A dedicated patient services manager and other staff who had direct responsibility for patients with long term conditions and mental health related conditions. A direct communication route for these patients had been made available to ensure efficient and timely access.
- There was a clear proactive approach to seeking out and embedding new ways of providing care and treatment to improve outcomes for patients. For example; innovative I.T. systems were used to drive improved patient care. An example of this was the use of risk profiling of patients to identify those most at risk of admission to hospital. This helped the practice reduce the rate of admissions which allowed them to offer more support. There was a reduction in emergency admissions from 92 per 1000 patients in 2013/14 to 67 per 1000 patients in 2015/16.
- The ‘dementia support team’ provided regular follow-up calls to patients with dementia which ensured consistent care and support. They were also provided with the names of two members of the staff team who were dementia champions. Direct telephone numbers to access these members of staff were given to patients if they or relative/family members needed to talk or ask for advice on health related matters.
Sue McMillan, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice in the North, said:
“It is clear The Springfield Medical Centre is providing an effective, responsive and well-led service which is a real asset to the people living in this part of Hull. To get rated as Outstanding is a real achievement.
“The practice had a clear vision, which had being responsive to people’s needs as its top priority and this is reflected in everything that they do.
“It was extremely impressive to see the lengths that this practice went to, providing personalised care for their patients, in particular, their older patients. The practice offered home visits, urgent appointments and worked with other health and social professionals to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care for those with complex needs.
“This is a great example of what outstanding care looks like.”
Professor Steve Field, Chief Inspector of General Practice said:
“All of this hard work and dedication pays off in making a real difference for their patients – which is why we have found this practice to be Outstanding.”
Our inspection team was led by a CQC Lead Inspector. The team included a GP specialist advisor, a practice manager and an expert by experience.
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For further information please contact CQC Regional Communications Officer Kerri James by email kerri.james@cqc.org.uk or by phone on 07464 92 9966.
