Biddlestone Health Group

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Biddlestone Health Group on 12 February 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, well-led, effective, caring and responsive services. It was also good for providing services for the following population groups: Older people; People with long-term conditions; Families, children and young people; Working age people (including those recently retired and students); People whose circumstances may make them vulnerable; People experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia).

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice pro-actively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted upon.
• The practice had an active patient participation group (PPG), which included representation from a wide range of backgrounds. The practice worked in partnership with the group to improve services for their patients.

However there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

The provider should

• Endeavour to increase both the recording and learning from significant events. The number of recorded significant events was less than expected for the practice size, with three recorded since April 2014. We found they were correctly actioned and investigated, but concentrated exclusively on negative events rather than also celebrating good practice and recording compliments.
• Ensure that any complaints received are responded to in line with practice’s policy. The practice’s complaints policy stated ‘We shall acknowledge your complaint within 2 working days’; however the records we looked at showed this had not always happened.
• Ensure that all clinical audits measure whether agreed standards have been achieved or make recommendations and take action where standards are not being met. There was evidence of audits having been undertaken which was relevant to individual clinical practice by some clinicians, however the majority of evidence presented was a review (i.e. the first part of an audit), and there was limited evidence of completed audit cycles.
• Continue to review access for patients who require urgent appointments. Nationally reported data and feedback we received from patients themselves suggested they found it difficult at times to get an appointment with a GP when they felt their need was urgent.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice