Shropdoc rated one of the best services in the country

The service is only the second provider of out of hours services in England to receive an overall ‘outstanding’ rating from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Shropdoc provides urgent services, when GP surgeries are closed, to patients in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and Powys.

The CQC inspectors judged the service to be outstanding in three categories inspected - its leadership, care and responsiveness for its patients.

The service was also rated good for its safety and its effectiveness. No other out of hours service in England has been so highly rated by the CQC.

Areas of praise in the report included comments such as:

- Staff were motivated and inspired to offer kind and compassionate care and worked to overcome obstacles to achieving this. For example, the provider continued to support the NHS 111 service through a duty of care to their patients and a ‘selfie’ (teledermatology) service facilitated the care for patients in their own home.

- The service used innovative and proactive methods to improve patient outcomes and working with other local providers to share best service.

- Risk management was comprehensively managed through an integrated system and every opportunity was used to learn from incidents and events.

Dr Simon Chapple, Medical Director of Shropdoc, said he was absolutely delighted with the report.

“Achieving an ‘outstanding’ rating in three out of five domains makes us the highest rated out-of-hours organisation in England,” he said.

“When you consider the out-of-hours period represents 70 per cent of the time, and that as a provider we have a patient population of 600,000, it’s reassuring to me that despite the scale of what we are doing, we are doing such an outstanding job!”

Dr Chapple said the success of the service is down to the people working for Shropdoc, who see it as “a vocation and not just a job”.

“Despite times being hard staff never forget that we’re not here for our own health but for the health of patients,” he adds. “I think that’s true to say of many working in healthcare.

“For my part I feel a heady sense of responsibility seeing patients on behalf of colleagues when their surgeries are closed; I certainly try to give patients the same level of care they’d expect from their own daytime team.

“Everyone working for Shropdoc knows how much local people value the service and this makes us feel enormously supported and encouraged.”

“I want to take this opportunity to thank the patients we serve, who try their very best to navigate their way through the system. Most of all, I want to thank everyone who works for Shropdoc, I am very proud of them and all they do.

The full report is available on the CQC website www.cqc.org.uk under Shropshire Doctors Co-Operative.