Archived: ELMS Pendle Valley Mill Medical Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at ELMS Pendle Valley Mill on 23 June 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
• Patients said they found it difficult to get through to the practice by phone and described difficulties in obtaining appointments, though they were positive about the way in which all staff cared for them.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

We saw an area of outstanding practice:

A member of staff had identified that British Pakistani women and young children felt excluded from a variety of community health promotion and exercise opportunities. She was supporting a small group of patients with weight management and had encouraged the local pool to commence women only swimming sessions, which was then extended to an additional local pool.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Complete the programme to ensure all staff have appraisals
• Review the process for sharing learning from significant events and to ensure that opportunities for learning from these are maximised.
• Provide chaperone training for all staff who undertake chaperoning duties.
• Introduce effective screening and immunisation programmes for all clinicians working with patients.
• Involve all clinicians in the planned audit programme to ensure that continual improvements to patients outcomes are monitored and shared.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice