A MIDDLEWICH GP surgery has achieved a 100 per cent rating in its healthcare good practice, despite having to make huge changes in how it provides treatment due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

Waters Edge Medical Centre on Leadsmithy Street has attained the top score in the NHS 2019/20 Quality and Outcomes Framework (QoF) results whilst coping with measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

QoF is a voluntary scheme that almost all GP surgeries in England sign up to which highlights the achievement of good practice in a range of measures.

In 2018-19, only 13 per cent of practices across England hit the top score.

The figure is calculated from how practices deal with medical problems, including asthma, cancer, heart and kidney disease, dementia, depression, diabetes, epilepsy, hypertension and rheumatoid arthritis. It also logs public health benchmarks which include levels for blood pressure, cytology, obesity and smoking.

Waters Edge Medical Centre is one of 28 practices across the north west run by SSP Health, 23 of which achieved a 100 per cent QoF rating with four more attaining more than 99 per cent.

Dr Shikha Pitalia, GP and director of SSP Health, said: “We are overjoyed at the success of our Middlewich practice in this important indicator of the level of care they provide.

“It is fantastic that our surgeries have achieved such outstanding results. They reflect the hard work of all our staff throughout the year.

“We are especially pleased that these high scores have been achieved partly during the Covid-19 outbreak when we have had to totally re-design how our patients access the advice and treatment we provide."

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To keep patients and staff as safe as possible from infection, the practice had to move from a majority of appointments being face-to-face to most now being conducted on the phone.

Dr Pilalia added: “Despite this, we have been able to hit the very high benchmarks that QoF demands so patients can be reassured they are still getting the very best care at our practices.

“We know that continuing to look after people properly for medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, depression and dementia, and hitting our targets for preventative care, including cervical screening and reducing smoking, needs to be done in spite of the pandemic.

“These QoF results show we are continuing to do this in the face of unprecedented pressures.”