Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Adswood Road Surgery on 8 September 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 that they sometimes had to wait several days to book a routine appointment with a named GP. Despite this patients said they received continuity of care and they were complimentary about the GPs. Urgent appointments were available the same day and the GPs provided a telephone call back service to patients.
• 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 sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on. However, the practice confirmed that they could not get volunteers to join a patient participation group (PPG) or even an online patient reference group (PRG).
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Develop a documented business plan with action plans and timescales to strengthen the practice’s governance arrangements and provide a framework for monitoring progress in achieving its objectives.

• Review communication strategies with patients to promote a clearer understanding and explanation of why there are waits to get a routine GP appointment and why some patient appointments are late.

• Continue to try to recruit patients to a patient participation or reference group, to provide a forum for formal patient engagement.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice