Spotlight on London’s outstanding GP practices: Woodgrange Medical Practice

The care provided to patients by the staff at Woodgrange Medical Practice in Forest Gate, Newham was rated as ‘outstanding’ in an inspection report published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in February 2017.

It is one of 14 practices to be rated as outstanding in London to date.

What makes the care at Woodgrange outstanding?

The quality of services at this practice was judged across five different areas: whether it is safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs, and well-led. Services were found to be either good or outstanding in each of these areas by CQC’s team of trained inspectors.

Along with providing high quality care as standard to its 12,700 patients, the practice was found to go above and beyond expectations — taking patient care to an outstanding level:

· GPs at the practice delivered improved outcomes and care for patients with diverse and complex health needs including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), mental health, dermatology, women’s health, diabetes and asthma.

· One of the GPs trained to become a specialist in dermatology, and then offered dermatology clinics at Woodgrange and other GP practices across the local area. The GP made themselves available to clinical staff at the practice on an immediate basis to help assess and treat patient’s skin conditions. Data showed high rates of patient satisfaction, substantial reductions in patients being referred for hospital care, and faster treatment.

· The practice offers a weekly citizens advice bureau clinics for its patients provided by professional welfare benefit advisers — helping to support patients beyond their medical needs.

· The practice nurse was found to run various health based community groups to promote health, exercise and social interaction and extended this service to other local practices. It also was found to be offering exercise groups for Muslim women who felt more comfortable attending a women only class.

· GPs showed leadership and took responsibility at an organisational level to improve local child protection arrangements. For example, both a partner GP and registrar made detailed records of child protection reporting system failures that had resulted in a lack of or delayed response from allied health and social care professionals to protect children.

Dr Muhammad Naqvi, Lead GP at Woodgrange Medical Practice in Newham said:

“This was our first CQC inspection and we didn’t know what to expect before or after the inspection. Our Team at Woodgrange Medical Practice work really hard in partnership with our patients, our Patient Participation Group and Newham Clinical Commissioning Group to deliver the best care we can.

“We were noted to be outstanding for our work and outcomes in chronic diseases, mental health and IAPT, adult and child safe-guarding, appointment access and specifically reducing frequent attendance, also outside of the Practice in the community and even globally. It was fantastic to receive the overall ‘Outstanding rating’ — we are 1 of only 13 Practices in London currently.

“All of the team are over the moon and I’m happy that their hard work has been recognised. This is a great news story for Newham and general practice generally especially when the NHS is under such strain. There is a great appetite from our Team to continue the good work and strive to do better for our patients all the time.​”

You can find out more about how Woodgrange Medical Practice delivers its outstanding care here.