TWO doctors’ surgeries within five minutes walking distance of each other in Wotton-under-Edge have fallen at opposite ends of the risk spectrum in a recent survey by the Care Quality Commission.

Culverhay Surgery has been marked as being at risk of providing inadequate care, while The Chipping Surgery, in Symn Lane, has been marked as one of the Commission’s lowest priorities for inspection.

The NHS care watchdog has revealed the information as part of a survey of GP practices across the UK.

The Chipping Surgery and Culverhay Surgery are half a mile apart around the area of Wotton’s town centre.

Problems at Culverhay include trouble getting appointments and potentially low numbers of over-65s receiving a flu jab.

Dr John Cordwell is Gloucestershire County Councillor for the Wotton area and a town councillor.
He said: "I am a patient at Culverhay myself and I have never experienced any problem with the surgery there at all.

"If I want an appointment immediately I get one immediately and if I don't I'll wait.

"I do think that both surgeries may have an issue with the increasing population in Wotton and Charfield. They are facing the strain of that now, particularly with issues like parking."

Professor Steve Field, CQC chief inspector, said most surgeries in England provided good care but added that the watchdog was still finding some “very poor practices”.

“These are typically chaotic, have very poor leadership and a lack of learning culture. They also have a poor skill mix and some do not have any nurses.”

NHS England oversees GP services and aims to improve the health outcomes of people around the country.

Deputy Medical Director at NHS England and former GP Mike Bewick said: “This data is extremely helpful in building a picture of the things that matter to patients about their local practice - being safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led. And it is reassuring to see that most practices are doing well against these indicators.

“We will use this data to work with local clinical commissioning groups and their member practices to support improvements and help bring all practices up to the level of the very best.”

Elsewhere in Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire GP surgeries fair well in the ranking system, with most practices – including those in Chipping Sodbury, Frampton Cotterell, Dursley, Berkeley, Stonehouse and Uley – being noted as the lowest priority for CQC inspection.

The survey is part of the CQC’s Intelligent Monitoring, developed to give them a clearer understanding of each provider and inform their inspectors where to look and what to focus on during an inspection.

Each practice is placed in a banding from one to six, with one being the highest risk of inadequate care and six being lowest risk.

To view the results yourself visit www.cqc.org.uk/content/our-intelligent-monitoring-gp-practices.

The practice manager at Culverhay Surgery was unable to be reached for comment before publication.