Central London surgery rated as outstanding by the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found the quality of care provided by the Victoria Medical Centre to be Outstanding.

Inspectors found that the surgery was providing a safe, caring, effective and well-led service that was particularly responsive to the needs of the local community.

Victoria Medical Centre provides a primary medical service to patients living in and around Victoria, Central London.

Ursula Gallagher, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice Inspection for London, said:

"We found that the Victoria Medical Centre is providing an Outstanding service for members of the local community with a variety of health needs.

“We were particularly impressed with the practice’s work to initiate positive service improvements for local patients and the commitment of all staff to ‘go the extra mile’ to seek improved outcomes for local people.

“Staff demonstrated a sound understanding of the differing needs of their patients and reflected these needs when planning and delivering services. This is a fantastic example of what outstanding care looks like.”

Under CQC’s new programme of inspections, all primary medical services in England are being given a rating according to whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.

The report on the Victoria Medical Centre highlights a number of areas of outstanding practice, including:

• The surgery hosts and supports a monthly 'Memory Café’ for patients with dementia and their carers and family members, and has received very high patient satisfaction reports since its introduction.
• A ‘link worker’ has been employed by the surgery specifically to assist elderly patients. The dedicated worker identifies and where appropriate visits patients aged 75 and over to offer support and information about available health and social care services. In particular, signposting elderly patients to fall prevention, flu and shingles vaccinations programmes.
• The surgery worked with a local university professor to trial an innovative approach to decreasing stress and improving the wellbeing of working men through high quality counselling and acupuncture. Trials took place with over 150 male patients over an 18 month period. Seventy eight percent of patients reported improved wellbeing and the trial was shortlisted for a British Medical Journal award.
• The practice sees more than 350 pregnant women a year and delivers full antenatal services from an integrated team of GPs, practice nurses and health visitors. The team recognised that many women had not taken folate in early pregnancy and took action to address this through the production of a dedicated leaflet on pre-pregnancy care. The leaflet won a best practise award from the Primary Care Women’s Health Forum, with 10,000 copies circulated to local GP practices and hospitals.