Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
North Swindon Practice is a GP practice situated in Swindon and has approximately 12,000 registered patients. North Swindon Practice operates from Home Ground Surgery in Haydon Wick, Swindon.
We carried out an announced, comprehensive visit on 8 October 2014. During our visit we spoke with a range of staff. These included GPs, nurses, reception and administrative staff and the practice manager. We also spoke with patients who used the practice and we reviewed comment cards where patients shared their views and experiences of treatment and care provided by staff.
Before visiting, we reviewed a range of information we held about the practice and asked other organisations to share what they knew. This included the Swindon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), NHS England and Healthwatch Swindon.
The overall rating for North Swindon Practice was good. Our key findings were as follows:
- the practice was safe for patients,
- effective in meeting their needs, caring towards them,
- responsive when things needed to change
- well led.
The practice demonstrated how legislation and guidance had been followed to ensure that people were treated with respect and kindness in a safe environment.
There were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.
The practice should:
- Ensure that all staff are aware they can complete significant event records themselves.
- Ensure vaccines are kept at the correct temperature and records of minimum and maximum temperatures are accurate.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice