The reports highlight some of the individual good practices in each surgery, and make recommendations for improvement at all 13 locations.
The recommendations range from improving administrative processes to carrying out annual medication reviews within the recommended timeframes, as well as better monitoring of patients with long-term conditions.
The positive practices highlighted in the report include examples of the surgeries providing exceptionally responsive services, tailored to the needs of their community; weekend cervical cancer screening appointments, chronic illness support groups, awareness raising of care among LGBTQ+ communities, and conducting annual health checks with at risk groups.
Where improvements have been recommended this means that the surgeries have been unable to demonstrate they meet all of the CQC standards. Out of the 13 surgeries inspected, 12 have not reached all the specific criteria, but always meet at least two of the standards, with one surgery meeting all five.
Not meeting all of the criteria does not mean that the surgeries are unsafe to provide patient care, nor that patients should be concerned about attending. All Island surgeries are in a position to continue providing care and treatment to all of their communities.
The GP surgeries have seen these reports and some of the improvements have already been put in place. Action plans are being developed for the complicated improvements over the next few months and longer-term plans to progress change in line with the island’s wider health and social care transformation objectives.
Minister for the Department of Health and Social Care, Lawrie Hooper MHK, said:
‘I understand people may have concerns when they read the report for their General Practice, but I want to reassure residents that our GP surgeries are safe places to receive care. I am pleased that all of the surgeries have taken on board the comments from the CQC, and have already started making the changes to improve their services. We need to take these reports in context – the surgeries haven’t met CQC standards, but this is to do with administrative or in-practice processes, not the patient care.’
He added:
‘As a Department we have been assured by Manx Care that these issues are being addressed through action plans and monitoring, and we will receive regular process updates. We want to make sure that all of these recommendations are well implemented, to ensure the people of the Isle of Man are receiving a high-standard of quality service.’
Manx Care is responsible for ensuring these improvements are implemented, and for monitoring the progress of the action plans. These plans will provide assurance to the Department that practices will continue to provide safe, secure and effective care.
The CQC reports allow the Department of Health and Social Care to better understand the state of care services on Island. The CQC have been commissioned to review the services using their key lines of enquiry, asking if the services are safe, effective, responsive, caring and well-led.
When visiting the locations the CQC cover all areas such as patient safety, access to appointments, information governance, storage processes and staff training. They also take into account the views of patients accessing care and treatment and employees of the services.
These are the second set of CQC reports to be published since they began a programme of inspections, looking at Health and Care services on Island provided directly or indirectly by Manx Care. These reports are baseline assessments, designed to highlight immediate issues and areas for improvements which will be monitored during further inspections of the services that will take place next year.
For more information relating to the inspection programme or to view the reports please visit the DHSC, External Quality Regulation website.
