CARE provided by medical professionals at a South Lakeland doctor's surgery has been recognised as 'outstanding' by the independent regulator of health and social care in England.

Doctors Judith Irving, Julia Smith, James Hacking and Jonathan Rylance of Park View Surgery, Milnthorpe, were awarded the highest accolade by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Practice manager Sue Evans said: "We are really chuffed and proud of our achievement. It's a recognition of the hard work and dedication of our team trying to provide the highest quality of care to our patients."

Under the CQC's programme of inspections, all of England's GP practices are being given a rating according to whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.

Inspectors rated the practice as outstanding for caring and well-led, good for safety, responsiveness and effectiveness.

The CQC's deputy chief inspector of General Practice in the North, Alison Holbourn said: "This is an excellent practice that has been innovative in the way it delivers services.

"For example there was a strong focus on continuous learning and practice such as a remote blood pressure monitoring via text message. Importantly, the surgery was sharing what they did with other local practices."

She added that within the at-home care sector the practice had specific plans to look after the four per cent of patients who were carers for people at home.

Data showed that patients rated the practice highly with 91 per cent saying the last GP they saw was good at involving them in decisions about their care.

"This is, very clearly, a surgery that is delivering excellent care on behalf of its patients," Ms Holbourn said. "Inspectors could see that staff were motivated and inspired to offer kind and compassionate care and worked to overcome obstacles to achieving this and there were many positive examples to demonstrate how patient choices and preferences were valued and acted on.

"It is evident that the patients of Milnthorpe, who use the practice, are delighted with their care, which is why we have found this practice to be outstanding."