A COUNCILLOR has expressed his disappointment at watchdog inspectors after residents had reported a better service from their GP surgery.

A recent inspection of the Rooksdown Surgery, in Park Prewett Road, by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) kept the surgery as rated as ‘requires improvement’.

However, Rooksdown ward councillor Simon Bound said the report does not reflect the feedback he has received from residents.

Cllr Bound said: “I am still hearing that patients are having to wait unnecessarily long to get appointments, but anecdotally there seems to be a better standard of service at the surgery now.

“The response from staff following the previous inspection has been good and they are working much harder to boost the standards.”

Cllr Bound added: “I guess at least things haven’t gotten any worse, and where I have previously been critical of the management of the surgery, I believe they are now taking their responsibility much more seriously.”

During the inspection which was carried out on January 17, the inspector reported the effectiveness of the service and care as ‘good’.

However, the care for people with long term conditions and vulnerable people were among the areas which still ‘require improvement’.

The inspector noted that there had been improvements made at Rooksdown Surgery compared to its previous inspection in August 2017, but not enough to achieve a higher standard in rating above ‘requires improvement’, according to the CQC inspectors.

The report read: “At this inspection we found the practice had made some improvements.

“However, further improvement was needed to be made across the practice and branch in relation to the patient experience and access to appointments to have their needs met.

“We found that insufficient progress had been made and the practice remained rated as requires improvement for providing well lead services.”

However, the report did praise where improvements had been made, adding: “Following complaints about poor communication by some members of the reception team. Two new team members were recruited who had previous customer care skills and support was given to existing staff on being customer focused.”

To read the full report visit cqc.org.uk.