Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We inspected this service on 1 October 2014 as part of our new comprehensive inspection programme.
The overall rating for this practice is good. We found the practice to be good in the safe, caring, responsive and well-led domains and outstanding in the effective domain. We found the practice provided good care to older people; people with long term conditions; people in vulnerable circumstances; families, children and young people; working age people and people experiencing poor mental health.
Our key findings were as follows:
- Patients were kept safe because there were arrangements in place for staff to report and learn from key safety risks. The practice had a system in place for reporting, recording and monitoring significant events over time.
- The practice recognised that patient satisfaction with access to appointments had fallen over the past year. There was evidence that the practice had made changes to respond to this and on-going monitoring demonstrated that changes still needed to be considered. The practice had been working with the Local Area Team, Clinical Commissioning Group and Patient Participation Group (PPG) to address this issue. PPGs are an effective way for patients and GP practices to work together to improve the service and to promote and improve the quality of care patients receive.
- There were systems in place to keep patients safe from the risk and spread of infection. Systems were in place to monitor and make required improvements.
- Evidence we reviewed demonstrated that most patients were satisfied with how they were treated and that this was with compassion, dignity and respect. It also demonstrated that the GPs were good at listening to patients and gave them enough time.
We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:
- The provider had developed a referrals feedback slip to gather information from the hospital physiotherapy department to monitor the appropriateness of their patient referrals.
- The lead nurse at the practice was supported by the GP partners within and outside of the service to take on a leadership role. An example of this is where the lead practice nurse led and chaired the local practice nurse forums to promote best practice in the administration of influenza, pneumonia and shingles vaccinations for older people.
However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.
The provider should:
- Ensure that all electrical equipment at the practice is safety tested.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice