Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of Fell Tower Medical Centre on 15 January 2015, which resulted in the practice being rated as good overall but as requiring improvement for the well led domain and the people experiencing poor mental health population group. This was because:
- The practice needed to improve their governance arrangements to ensure a strong link between analysis of their performance and continuous quality improvement, including use of audits, significant events and incidents analysis.
- The performance on the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) indicators was lower than other practices.
In November 2016 we commenced a focussed inspection where we asked the practice to send us information to demonstrate how they had responded to the issues previously identified.
This report only covers our findings in relation to these issues. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all report’ link for Fell Tower Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Our key findings were as follows:
- The practice had developed a formal business plan. This reflected the vision and values, included a summary of goals and objectives and was regularly monitored.
- A programme of staff meetings was in place. The practice had completed or was in the progress of completing a number of audits since the last inspection.
- Staff had received training on reporting significant events; and the number reported by nursing and administration staff subsequently increased.
The area where the provider should make improvements is:
- Take steps to ensure the care plans for patients with dementia are reviewed.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice