Avon Road Surgery

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr Immaneni Sudha on 23 May 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

The practice had reviewed its levels of chlamydia screening and found six recorded in 2014. The practice employed methods such as opportunistically targeting at risk groups and inviting them for chlamydia screening. They also provided free educational sessions about chlamydia in local schools. As a result, the number of patients screened rose from six in 2014 to 327 in 2015. The practice was awarded a Certificate of High Achievement for its performance in the Chlamydia screening programme for the year 2014/15.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• The business continuity plan should include emergency contact number of all staff. Copies of the business continuity plan should be kept off site.

• All staff should receive an annual appraisal, including the practice manager.

• The practice should review their process for taking minutes at meetings and ensure processes are in place to share discussions at meetings with all staff.

• The practice should take reasonable steps to form a patient participation group (PPG) and consider other ways to gain patient’s views and encourage patient participation in the running of practice.

• Notes taken at staff interviews should be kept on file for future reference.

• Regular fire drills should be carried out.

• Review their immunisation rates for children aged five years to support improvement.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice