Highfield Surgery

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Highfield Surgery on 10 August 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Caring - Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led - Good

Following our previous inspection on 18 January 2017, the practice was rated good overall and for all key questions. Since this time the practice has moved location.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Highfield Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Whwe carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection in line with our inspection priorities.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• A site visit.

Our findings

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

• what we found when we inspected
• information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services
• information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We have rated this practice as Good overall.

We found that:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness, respect and compassion and involved them in decisions about their care.
• Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• There was compassionate, inclusive and effective leadership and effective processes for managing risks, issues and performance.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Continue to strengthen the systems of accountability to support good governance and management, including processes to monitor and record staff training and appraisals, keep all staff up-to-date with the practice's training and appraisal requirements and to ensure competence of staff employed in advanced clinical practice.
• Embed identified improvements in processes for assessing and monitoring patients and medicines, including safety alerts and missed diagnoses, in line with guidance.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health Care