A BANBURY GP surgery which last year lost all three of its lead doctors has been taken out of special measures, the health watchdog has confirmed.

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) recognised improvements had been made and upgraded Horsefair Surgery from 'inadequate' to 'requires improvement' following their visit in December.

However, despite the improvements, the CQC said a number of care concerns still remained.

Inspectors rated the surgery good across the safe and caring measures, while the effective, responsive and well-led measures were rated as requires improvement.

Chief inspector of general practice at the CQC, Professor Steve Field, said the service was being taken out of special measures recognising improvements made to the quality of care since the last inspection.

New clinical director at the surgery, Dr Tim Holt, said following a turbulent time, the surgery was now on a more stable footing having worked hard on recruiting more permanent staff.

He said: “We have come in recently and made a huge amount of changes in a short space of time and it’s all going in a positive direction.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done but we were very encouraged by the report.”

The CQC recognised that improvement plans were being implemented and the surgery was ‘showing advances’ in areas of concern identified at the last inspection.

Inspectors said in their report that clinical outcomes showed ‘improved performance’ in some areas, particularly long term medicine reviews.

However they said in some cases patients with long term conditions had not had their care reviewed in three years.

The CQC report also said clinical governance did not always ensure patients at most risk were identified to ensure their needs were met

Last summer all three partners at Horsefair Surgery, which serves around 16,000 patients, left their roles at the same time citing ‘personal reasons’.

This left just one salaried GP and three nurses in post.

Oxfordshire CCG head of primary care Julie Dandridge, said it worked ‘intensively with the surgery over the past few months.

She added: “We will continue to work closely with the surgery and their PPG to improve the areas identified in the inspection that still require improvement.”