Archived: Lakeside Medical Centre

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Lakeside Medical Centre on 4 April 2016. Overall the practice is rated as Good.

Please note that when referring to information throughout this report, for example any reference to the Quality and Outcomes Framework data, this relates to the most recent information available to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) at that time.

Our key findings were as follows:

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, reviewed and addressed.
• Risks to patients and staff were assessed.
• 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.
• Patients said they were treated with 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.
• Patients told us they could get an appointment when they needed one. Urgent appointments were 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 the management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff, patients and third party organisations, which it acted on.
• The practice engaged with the local community and organised events to promote services and support service users.

We saw a number of areas where the practice should make improvements.

The practice should:

• Complete an assessment of identified risks to patients and staff.

• Implement a robust system to follow up and document outcomes for children who had not attended hospital appointments.

• Introduce an evidence based approach for optimising the care provided to all palliative care patients.

• Implement an alert system to support staff to identify patients who are also carers.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice