NORTHWICH’S Witton Street surgery has been given an overall clean bill of health from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The practice, which includes diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery, surgical procedures, and treatment of disease amongst its services, was rated ‘good’ at its latest inspection.

The surgery was found to be effective, caring, responsive and well led – four of the five key areas of the inspection.

In the report, following an inspection in March, inspectors said the practice reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided and ensured care and treatment was delivered according to evidence based guidelines.

Staff were provided with appropriate training and support and described as treating patients with kindness and care.

The practice was also found to be organised to meet patients’ needs, with systems in pace to respond to feedback and complaints and a focus on learning and improvement

However, inspectors found that the practice ‘requires improvement’ when it comes to safety, stating that the systems need to be more robust when it comes to monitoring medicines.

The system to monitor uncollected prescriptions didn’t ensure that vulnerable patients not collecting their medication would be referred to the GPs for review, and the practice wasn’t monitoring emergency supplies to ensure appropriate medication was available.

It also found the repeat prescription processes meant the GP was not doing the final check of all prescriptions before they were issued to the patient and the practice wasn’t carrying out regular checks of the outcome of blood monitoring tests prior to prescribing medication to manage this.