A doctor’s surgery with 16,000 patients has been rated good after an inspection by a health watchdog.

The Memorial Medical Centre, based at Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital in Bell Road, was visited by Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors in January.

The practice scored the high rating in four out of five categories - for effectiveness of services, being caring, response to people’s needs and leadership.

Safety was the one area graded as requires improvement due to a lack of health and safety risk assessments, fire training and accessibility of emergency medications.

Inspectors found patients were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and there was a “clear leadership structure,” but patients said it was hard to make an appointment with a named GP.

Currently, the practice has 11 GPs and a nursing team of nine.

The report reads: “As part of our inspection we also asked for CQC comment cards to be completed by patients prior to our inspection.

“We received 34 comment cards which were positive about the standard of care received. For example, patients indicated staff were caring, helpful and polite.”

It added: “However, 12 cards included negative comments about the difficulty of booking a suitable routine appointment."

“We spoke with seven patients during the inspection."

"All said they were satisfied with the care they received and thought staff were approachable, committed and caring.”

The same seven also cited issues with booking appointments.

The CQC has told the centre to review its policies towards fire procedures and health and safety.

It should also look at how emergency medications are stored, make sure patients who are also carers receive appropriate support and improve appointment bookings access.

Memorial Medical Centre did not wish to comment.

To read the report, visit tinyurl.com/memorialmedical