Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr Howells & partners (at that time known as Dr West & partners) on 18 May 2016. At that time, the practice was rated overall as good. However, we identified a breach in regulation relating to the way in which medicines were managed which resulted in a rating of requires improvement for provision of safe services. Specifically we found that learning from dispensary errors was communicated inconsistently, medicines were dispensed to patients before GPs had signed and authorised prescriptions and some medicines held for use in an emergency were out of date.
The practice sent us an action plan setting out the changes they were making to address the breach in regulation.
We carried out a focused inspection on 21 December 2016 to ensure these changes had been implemented and that the service was meeting regulation they had previously breached. The ratings for the practice have been updated to reflect our findings. We found the practice had made improvements in safe provision of services since our last inspection on 18 May 2016 and they were now meeting the requirements of the regulation in breach.
Our key findings in the area we inspected were as follows:
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The practice had introduced an effective system for reporting and learning from dispensing errors and “near misses”. This followed an improvement process designed by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
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Repeat prescriptions were being signed by GPs before medicines were dispensed to patients from both the practice dispensaries.
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The practice had an effective system for monitoring the medicines held for use in an emergency.
We have updated the ratings for this practice to reflect these changes. The practice is now rated good for the provision of safe services.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice