Two in every three GP practices in England have now been rated by the CQC, which has committed to inspect and rate the remaining 2,700 by March next year.
The overwhelming majority of those rated have been found ‘good’, with 82% – almost 4,300 practices – currently holding this rating.
One in 10 – around 430 practices – have been told they need to make improvements. A further 110 were also initially rated ‘requires improvement’, but these have since improved to good, barring a handful that fell to ‘inadequate’.
There are 170 practices with an inadequate rating, compared to over 220 who were initially given such a rating.
Map: full GPonline analysis of CQC ratings
Statistics from the CQC have shown that half of the practices re-rated after an inadequate rating have gone on to improve – while two in five have since been shut down.
Professor Steve Field, chief inspector of general practice at the CQC, said: ‘After reporting on more than 6,000 inspections we have found that most care is good – with just over 200 practices now rated outstanding.
‘That means that over 1m patients in England currently receive care from practices which we have rated outstanding. What’s enormously encouraging is that our inspections are driving improvement – 90% of practices that we have re-inspected have improved since last October.
‘Through their hard work and dedication, practices are making positive changes to the care they deliver.
‘However, we still see evidence of too much poor care. Since we began inspecting GP practices in October 2014 we have found over 200 practices to be inadequate. While this is a minority, this still amounts to over half a million patients in England who were not receiving the basic standards of care that they should be able to expect from their GP practice.
‘I am glad to say that we have increasingly found that most practices that are placed in special measures use the support that is on offer to meet those standards.’
