We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Practice St Albans on 22 August 2019 as part of our inspection programme.
The key questions are rated as:
Are services safe? – Requires improvement
Are services effective? – Good
Are services caring? – Good
Are services responsive? – Good
Are services well-led? – Good
We previously inspected The Practice St Albans on 25 April 2016. The overall rating for the practice was requires improvement and the practice was asked to provide us with an action plan to address the areas of concern that were identified during our inspection.
We carried out a second announced comprehensive inspection at The Practice St Albans on 12 December 2016 in order to assess improvements and the outcomes from their action plan. The overall rating for the practice following the second inspection was requires improvement.
As a result of concerns raised with us, we carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection on 18 September 2017 to ensure improvements had continued and to look at
the areas highlighted to us. As a result of this the practice was rated as inadequate and placed into special measures.
At a further inspection in June 2018, we rated the practice as requires improvement overall and the practice was taken out of special measures.
At the latest inspection in August 2019, we found that the provider had satisfactorily addressed areas of concern found at the previous inspection.
We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service 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 now rated this practice as good overall, though the practice was rated as requires improvement for safe services. The practice was rated good for all population groups.
We rated the practice as requires improvement for providing safe services because:
- The provider could not demonstrate effective review of the prescribing practice of non-medical prescribers through clinical supervision, audit or peer review.
We found that:
- Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
- Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
- The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
- The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of person-centred care.
The area where the provider should make improvements is:
- Strengthen and better document supervision of non-medical prescribers to include a review of their prescribing practices and consultations.
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care