THE team at Okehampton Medical Centre is celebrating after receiving a positive report from the Care Quality Commission.

The medical centre received a ‘good rating’ in all areas — responsiveness, safety, effectiveness, care and leadership.

Dr Tim Watson, a GP at the surgery said: ‘We are all very pleased with the outcome of this report. We were confident that the care we provide is strong and we strive to reach the levels of care that our patients deserve. It is good to know we are achieving that.

‘When the inspectors were here they spoke to a wide spectrum of patients and our staff so the comments we received from patients are also very encouraging.

‘For us, working in primary care with ever increasing pressures from a building workload and decreasing funding, to be recognised as providing good quality care by the CQC is very satisfying.

‘Ninety per cent of face to face consultations handled by the NHS are done in primary care, yet we receive just eight per cent of NHS funding. So that gives a bit of context to the pressures we are under and why we are so proud of this report.’

In their summary of the practice, CQC inspectors said: ‘The team was committed to providing co-ordinated, responsive and compassionate care for patients. Urgent appointments were available the same day but not necessarily with a GP of the patient’s choice.

‘The practice had good facilities including disabled access and recognised there were areas of the building which could be improved in consultation with disabled patients.

‘Information about services and how to complain was available. The practice actively sought patient views about improvements that could be made to the service and worked with the patient participation group to do this. The practice proactively sought to educate their patients to manage their medical conditions and improve their lifestyles.

‘Additional in-house services were available and delivered by staff with advanced qualifications, skills and experience. There were systems in place to reduce risks to patient safety for example, infection control procedures.

‘Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following current practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles.

‘The practice used audits and had shared information from one of their audits with other practices to promote better patient outcomes.’

Patients told inspectors they were treated with ‘compassion, dignity and respect’ and that staff helped them to cope emotionally with their care and treatment.

Inspectors said that for the surgery to improve, it should reinstate a schedule of review dates for all policies and procedures to ensure that these meet current legislation and guidelines.

In recent weeks there have been question marks over whether the medical centre will be able to handle an influx of new patients after NHS England announced its intentions to close the Okement Surgery based at Okehampton Hospital. The surgery has over 1,700 patients who will be looking for a new practice in the next six months. It is thought the majority of these will try to transfer to Okehampton Medical Centre, or face travelling to practices in North Tawton, Bow or Hatherleigh.

Dr Watson said: We know there is a lot of anxiety in the town about the provision of primary care; not just from patients at the Okement Surgery but from our own patients too. It is nice to know where we are at now and that we are providing a good level of care already.

‘We are confident that despite the challenges we will face with new patients coming from the Okement Surgery and new patients through the growth of the town, we can carry on providing the level of care to patients we are now.

‘We have done a great deal of planning to not only ensure that with extra patients we can maintain our current level of care but go on to improve as well over the next five or six years as patient numbers increase.’

Okehampton Medical Centre intends to hold an open day in early 2016 for new patients.