Archived: Risedale Surgery

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Risedale Surgery on 7 June 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• 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.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance.
• 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 mostly assessed and well managed.
• While most staff had undertaken recent training, records could not be provided to show that some staff had recently received certain training.

We saw an area of outstanding practice:

• The practice worked to improve the care of people with learning difficulties. For example, one of the GPs visited a local home for patients with learning difficulties to help with care planning and to offer vaccinations to patients and staff who worked there. The practice nurse had attended workshops with patients with learning difficulties to give talks and let people handle medical equipment such as stethoscopes to help them to feel more at ease when undergoing care.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Support staff to understand their role in identifying and reporting significant events.
• Prescribers should continue to assess named patients for their suitability to receive medication under a Patient Specific Direction before these are signed.
• Consider other ways of sourcing emergency medication if difficulties with suppliers persist.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice