Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We previously carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Swanswell Medical Centre on 6 October 2016. The overall rating for the practice was requires improvement with requires improvement ratings in safe and well-led services and good ratings in effective, caring and responsive services. The full comprehensive report on the October 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Swanswell Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 6 December 2017 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 6 October 2016. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.
Overall the practice is now rated as good.
Our key findings were as follows:
- The practice had made significant improvements to ensure that all patients requiring repeat prescriptions received appropriate reviews by their GP.
- The practice monitored all blank prescriptions to ensure a clear audit trail.
- The practice had carried out necessary health and safety risk assessments including fire risk assessments and taken any necessary actions.
- The practice had made improvements to ensure all staff were aware of any significant events that had occurred and any learning that had taken place.
- The practice had also made improvements to ensure all patients were informed of incidents when it was necessary.
- Since our previous inspection, the practice had reviewed and updated a number of policies and procedures. For example, repeat prescribing to ensure effective processing of prescriptions and the staff training policy to enable more clarity on what the practice identified as mandatory training.
- The practice had also made improvements to its system to monitor staff training levels.
- All staff had received a recent appraisal and had a development plan in place.
- Staff recorded outcomes from multidisciplinary meetings in patients’ notes and shared care plans with patients to give them the opportunity to comment.
- The practice had reviewed its storage of clinical waste to ensure sharps bins were stored appropriately.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice