The Reynard Surgery in Red Lodge near Mildenhall celebrates new overall rating of good from Care Quality Commission

A GP surgery in a Suffolk village is celebrating being awarded an overall rating of good by a health watchdog.

The Reynard Surgery in Red Lodge near Mildenhall, was rated as requires improvement by the Care Quality Commission in September 2021, and in the last 12 months staff have responded by making the necessary changes and have turned things around.

The surgery now has the same rating as around 80 per cent of GP practices in England.

The latest CQC inspection report highlights the high-quality care that patients are now receiving and notes that staff are happy and well supported in their roles in helping the local community keep physically and mentally well.

Following the inspection on September 26, the practice received good scores for the categories of responsive, caring and well-led. It was also awarded good scores for providing safe and effective services after they were rated requires improvement last year.

According to the report, this was because not all patients had appropriate blood monitoring recorded in their clinical records before repeat prescriptions were re-issued, the systems in place for ensuring medicine safety updates had been actioned were not always effective and it was not always clear that appropriate clinicians had undertaken review of patients’ medicines.

However, the CQC deemed that patients were now being appropriately managed and monitored, and the system for ensuring patients had appropriate monitoring before issuing a repeat prescription had been embedded.

Debbie Allen, Practice Manager at the Reynard Surgery, said: “It is certainly pleasing that we have been rated ‘good’ by the CQC and this could not have been achieved without the hard work of our staff and the continued support of our patients.

“Not only have we made the necessary changes that were highlighted by the CQC, but we have also made significant progress in expanding the health care team at the practice, which, considering the wider challenges in health care recruitment we are proud to have achieved. We have new roles in place including a care co-ordinator, a paramedic and a social prescriber, all of whom augment the care offer, and enables patients to more speedily see the most appropriate health care professional for their needs.

“We are proud of what we have achieved over the last year and, despite the many challenges facing GP practices, we are determined to continue to remain an integral and positive part in the community so that people can live long and happy lives.”