Archived: Taw Hill Medical Practice

We carried out a comprehensive inspection at Taw Hill Medical Practice on 25 January 2019, as part of our inspection programme. The provider was given limited announcement of the inspection due to concerns raised about another service that is also part of the same partnership arrangement. Taw Hill Medical Practice has not been previously inspected under the current provider.

Our judgement of the quality of care at this service is based on a combination of what we found when we inspected, information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We have rated this practice as Requires Improvement overall.

The key questions at this inspection are rated as:

• Are services safe? – Requires Improvement
• Are services effective? – Requires Improvement
• Are services caring? – Good
• Are services responsive? – Requires Improvement
• Are services well-led? – Requires Improvement.

The population groups (for example, older people and those experiencing poor mental health) are all rated as Requires Improvement.

This means that:

• Patients had good outcomes because they received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Patients were supported, treated with dignity and respect and were involved as partners in their care.
• People’s needs were met by the way in which services were organised and delivered.

However, the leadership, governance and culture of the practice did not always promote the delivery of high quality person-centred care. For example:

• There was no evidence of systems to ensure audits were conducted regularly.
• Recruitment checks for staff did not include all information relevant to employment in their roles.

The areas where the provider must make improvements are:

• Ensure care and treatment are provided in a safe way for service users.
• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.
• Ensure staff employed are suitably qualified to carry out their role.
• Ensure recruitment procedures are established and operated effectively.
• Ensure effective care is provided for service users with diabetes, so that there is lower exception reporting and healthier outcomes for these indicators.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Continue to identify carers to enable this group of patients to access the care and support they require.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice