A GP surgery in Ilford has been taken out of special measures.

The Drive Surgery was given the Care Quality Commission's (CQC) lowest rating - inadequate - at a previous inspection last October.

A follow-up inspection in February saw the surgery allowed to stay open and found that improvements had been made.

After CQC's latest visit in May, the health regulator graded the surgery 'good' overall and across two of its three main criteria.

Only in the 'effective' area did the surgery remain at 'requires improvement'.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth, chief inspector of primary medical services and integrated care, wrote that the practice had made "significant improvements".

She said: "There were effective processes in place to manage risk and potential issues at the practice.

"The way the practice was managed showed improvement in promoting the delivery of quality, person-centre care."

The report explained that inspectors found evidence that safeguarding systems and processes had been established.

It said: "We found that the practice had put in place systems so that we could verify that the practice had effective processes for record keeping.

"There were updated infection prevention controls to reduce the spread of infections including Covid-19, policies were in place to ensure that patients were kept safe and we saw that the practice learned and sought improvement when things went wrong."

In the 'effective' criteria, inspectors said improvement had been made but that they kept the rating at 'requires improvement' as the surgery's uptake for child immunisations and cervical screening were low.

Dr Benneyworth wrote that the surgery should continue to try and improve these rates, as well as keep "a consistent approach" to record keeping.

On the practice's leadership, inspectors added: "We found that the practice had put in place systems to ensure the wellbeing of staff and for the monitoring and mitigation of potential risk.

"Governance arrangements had been reviewed and systems put in place to allow for oversight of the day-to-day running of the practice."

A surgery spokesperson credited NHS support for helping it to improve but said they were disappointed with the feedback on cervical screening uptake.

It serves a patient population of around 6,900 people, according to CQC.