CQC inspectors have highlighted standards of care in reports published on a number of GP practices across the country — including ones in Launceston and Hatherleigh.

Launceston Medical Centre, under the NHS Kernow CCG, was rated ‘Good’.

Hatherleigh Medical Centre, part of NHS Northern, Eastern and Western Devon CCG, was not rated but was part of a ‘focused inspection’. Focused inspections are smaller in scale than comprehensive inspections, although they follow a similar process. These are carried out to check on specific areas the CQC are concerned about, which might have been raised during a comprehensive inspection or through their monitoring work.

GP practices have recently been inspected by specialist teams of inspectors. Under CQC’s new programme of inspections, all of England’s GP practices have been given a rating according to whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.

The chief inspector of general practice rated practices ‘Outstanding’, ‘Good’, ‘Require Improvement’ or ‘Inadequate’ following recent inspections by the Care Quality Commission. Eight reports were ‘focused inspections’ which are not rated.

The total number of practices rated Outstanding is 276. The total number of practices that have exited ‘special measures’ is 97.

Professor Steve Field, chief inspector of general practice, said: “After reporting on more than 6,000 inspections we have found that most care is good — with over 200 practices now rated Outstanding.

“That means that over 1-million patients in England currently receive care from practices which we have rated Outstanding. What’s enormously encouraging is that our inspections are driving improvement — 90% of practices that we have re-inspected have improved since last October.

“Through their hard work and dedication, practices are making positive changes to the care they deliver.

“However, we still see evidence of too much poor care. Since we began inspecting GP practices in October 2014 we have found over 200 practices to be Inadequate. While this is a minority, this still amounts to over half a million patients in England who were not receiving the basic standards of care that they should be able to expect from their GP practice.

“I am glad to say that we have increasingly found that most practices that are placed in special measures use the support that is on offer to meet those standards.”