Health inspectors have given 132 general practices offering care to more than a million patients an outstanding rating since the start of new inspections in 2014.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said that since they began in October 2014 inspectors have visited more than 3,000 surgeries and most of them offered good care.
It has rated 132 as outstanding and 33 have exited special measures.
The CQC’s chief inspector of general practice, Professor Steve Field said: “Over one million patients in England currently receive care from practices which we have rated outstanding.”
He added: “What’s enormously encouraging is that our inspections are driving improvement – 90% of practices that we have re-inspected have improved since last October.”
He said practices have improved through “hard work and dedication.”
However he pointed out that: “There is still too much poor care.”
More than 100 practices have been rated as inadequate since inspections began 18 months ago.
Although they were a minority he said it meant that over half a million patients were not getting the basic standards of care they should expect from their GP practice.
However Field said his team of inspectors “have increasingly found that most practices that are placed in special measures use the support that is on offer to meet those standards.”
This week the CQC has published a further 58 reports. Out of these two were given an outstanding rating, 45 were rated as good, seven were told they required improvement and three were inadequate.
One practice was given a focused inspection which is not rated.
