Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Abbey Medical Centre on 16 March 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 and near misses, and we saw evidence that learning was applied. Staff were actively encouraged to report significant events including positive ones.
• The practice implemented suggestions for improvements and made changes to the way it delivered services as a consequence of feedback from patients and from the patient participation group.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed. The practice reviewed policies and identified changes based on audit and updates.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Feedback from patients about their care was consistently positive and data from the GP survey was consistently above local and national averages. For example,100% of patients said they had confidence and trust in the last GP or nurse they saw or spoke to.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• The practice actively reviewed complaints for trends and how they were managed and responded to, and made improvements as a result.
• Patients said they found the appointment system easy to navigate and praised the ‘sit and wait’ morning clinics as convenient and efficient and said it was easy to make an appointment with a named GP.
• The practice had strong and visible clinical and managerial leadership and governance arrangements, and staff told us that they were well-supported and felt valued by the partners.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice had held several ‘golden years’ events were local people attended to practice to listen to music and support, aimed at patients with a diagnosis of dementia and their carers was available.
• A patient in very vulnerable and uncertain circumstances had presented at the practice hungry and in need of help. The practice staff provided food and drink and organised accommodation support. When the patient failed to return later that evening some staff went searching for the patient with extra clothing as it was a particularly cold night and with the offer of shelter.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice