AN ANDOVER medical centre has been rated as ‘good’ by inspectors, although it was told there are elements of its service that must be improved upon.

Shepherds Spring Medical Centre, in Cricketers Way, hosted inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in an announced visit in November 2019.

Three key areas of the service were assessed, including how effective, safe and well-led it was.

And a report published by the CQC last week revealed that the home was graded as ‘good’ overall, despite being told it must improve in the ‘well-led’ category.

Specifically, the report stated that the service must “establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care”.

Despite the room for improvement, the service was praised in a number of areas.

The report notes: “Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.

“Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.”

The service was also graded ‘good’ for the way in which it treated older people, those with long-term health conditions and people experiencing poor mental health.

The report read: “Older patients discharged from hospital were followed up. This was undertaken by the proactive care team on behalf of the practice. They ensured that their care plans and prescriptions were updated to reflect any extra or changed needs.

“Patients with long-term conditions were offered a structured annual review to check their health and medicines were being met. For patients with the most complex needs, the GP worked with other health and care professionals to deliver a coordinated package of care.

“The practice assessed and monitored the physical health of people with mental illness, severe mental illness, and personality disorder by providing access to health checks, interventions for physical activity, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and access to ‘stop smoking’ services.”

The report also showed that the practice exceeded its 90 per cent targets in all four child immunisation uptake indicators, although it was below its target for cervical cancer screenings.