A PETERSFIELD family doctor has praised the high quality of services provided by GP practices across East Hampshire.

His praise comes after a Care Quality Commission (CQC) report rated as ‘good’ all but one of the GP practices in the south east Hampshire areas, from Hayling Island up to Bordon.

As well as being a family doctor at the Swan Surgery in Swan Street, Petersfield, Dr Andrew Holden is the primary care clinical lead for the South?Eastern Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

It is made up of 24 GP practices which cover East?Hampshire.

Dr Holden said: “I think that is something to be proud of and it is no mean achievement at a time when GPs face ongoing pressures around capacity, patient demand and workload and at a time of service redesign.

“The best general practices are driving change and embracing innovation to ensure they are able to deliver even better care in the future, and the challenge is for us to continue to do this as we continue to strive for further improvement.

“We are fortunate in having an extremely skilled and committed local workforce in general practice – not only the GPs but the nurses, and other clinical and vital support staff, such as our receptionists who we know from other surveys are valued by our patients. It’s a real team effort.

”The one practice that was deemed to require improvement has been revisited and we hear the visit went very well.”

The national report published last month said that at the end of the inspection of UK surgeries, four per cent were rated outstanding, 86 per cent good, eight per cent required improvement and two per cent were inadequate.