20 September 2018
During a routine inspection
This service is rated as good overall. The previous inspection on 21 March 2018 rated the practice as requires improvement.
The key questions are rated as:
Are services safe? – Good
Are services effective? – Good
Are services caring? – Good
Are services responsive? – Good
Are services well-led? – Good
Following our comprehensive inspection at Staffordshire House on 21 March 2018 the location was rated as requires improvement for the Staffordshire Out of Hours (OOH) service with a requires improvement rating for the safe, effective, responsive and well-led key questions, good for the caring key question.
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 20 September 2018 to monitor that improvements had been made.
Our key findings from this inspection were as follows:
- We found improvements had been made to manage risks relating to delays in treatment being provided.
- The skill mix and staffing levels had been reviewed and we saw that safe care and treatment was now being provided in a timely way.
- There were effective systems and policies governing the health, welfare and safety of people. These included training for all staff who acted as chaperones and criminal checks on all staff.
- Systems for the management of medicines including controlled medicines were comprehensive and effective. Prescriptions were securely stored and their use was monitored.
- The recruitment of new personnel into the governance team had strengthened arrangements and supported an overarching governance framework for systems and processes.
The provider had recruited and trained associated healthcare professionals and reduced the dependence on GPs.
- Patients’ care needs were seen to be assessed and delivered in a timely way according to their needs. The service had improved performance against the Local Quality Requirements which monitored clinically effective and responsive care. For example, home visit response times showed sustained improvement and achieved contractual targets for the past three months.
There was one area of the service where we recommended that the provider should make improvements:
- Continue to improve the evidence to support that mandatory training has been completed by GPs.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice