Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
St Blazey Surgery was inspected on Tuesday 3 March 2015. This was a comprehensive inspection. Overall the practice is rated as good.
St Blazey Surgery provides primary medical services to people living in St Blazey and the surrounding areas. Of the 6,350 patients registered at the service, 99% had described their ethnicity as White British. The practice provides services to a predominantly Cornish population and is situated in a semi-rural location. The practice provided health services under a General Medical Services contract (GMS) from the NHS.
The service had a team of four GP partners. Two were male and two were female. GP partners held managerial and financial responsibility for running the business. There were two nurses and two health care assistants at the practice. In addition there was a practice manager, a deputy manager and additional administrative and reception staff.
Patients who use the practice have access to community staff including district nurses, community psychiatric nurses, health visitors, physiotherapists, mental health staff, counsellors, chiropodist and midwives.
Our key findings were as follows:
We rated this practice as good. Patients reported having good access to appointments at the practice and liked having a named GP which improved their continuity of care. The practice was clean, well-organised, had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients. There were effective infection control procedures in place.
The practice valued feedback from patients and acted upon this. Feedback from patients about their care and treatment was consistently positive. We observed a patient centred culture. Staff were motivated and inspired to offer kind and compassionate care and worked to overcome obstacles to achieving this. Views of external stakeholders were positive and were aligned with our findings.
The practice was well-led and had a clear leadership structure in place whilst retaining a sense of mutual respect and team work. There were systems in place to monitor and improve quality and identify risk and systems to manage emergencies.
Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered in line with current legislation. This included assessment of a patient’s mental capacity to make an informed decision about their care and treatment, and the promotion of good health.
Suitable staff recruitment, pre-employment checks, induction and appraisal processes were in place and had been carried out. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and further training needs had been identified and planned.
Information received about the practice prior to and during the inspection demonstrated the practice performed comparatively with all other practices within the clinical commissioning group (CCG) area.
Patients told us they felt safe in the hands of the staff and felt confident in clinical decisions made. There were effective safeguarding procedures in place.
Significant events, complaints and incidents were investigated and discussed. Learning from these events was communicated and acted upon.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice