Gants Hill GP surgery rated as ‘requiring improvement’ by health inspectors

A Gants Hill GP practice with around 4000 registered patients has been rated as requiring improvement by health inspectors following a comprehensive inspection in December.

The Cranbrook Surgery in Cranbrook Road was visited by a team from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on December 5, and the organisation published its official report on Friday (February 16).

Inspectors felt the GP surgery, which was also rated as requiring improvement when it was last inspected in August 2016, needed to make strives in regards to its safety, caring, responsiveness to people’s needs and leadership.

However, the practice’s effectiveness was rated as good, while its safety rating had also improved from inadequate.

One of the key concerns raised by inspectors was the surgery’s comparatively poor performance in patient satisfaction surveys.

A CQC spokesman said: “During the inspection the practice told us that low patient satisfaction survey scores was an area that they were seeking to improve through the introduction of extended hours surgery.

“At this inspection, although some of the patient survey scores were close to the Redbridge Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG) average, none of the scores recorded for the practice exceeded the CCG or national averages, and in some cases the results were lower than those recorded at the time of the last inspection in 2016.

“The practice told us they would continue to engage with their patients regarding the services which attained low scores and access to those services.”

CQC inspectors also visited the Ilford Lane Surgery on the first floor of the Loxford Polyclinic on December 11, and this report was also published on Friday.

This surgery was rated good overall, with all aspects apart from the practice’s responsiveness being praised by inspectors.

However, these results are identical to the results of its last inspection in December 2016.

Again, one of the CQC’s largest issues was with poor patient satisfaction survey results, but the report also concluded that the practice’s obesity register needed to be “kept relevant” and that more work needed to be done to draw up written care plans for patients diagnosed with asthma.