Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Allerton Health Centre on 2 December 2015. 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. Staff understood their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses.
• Risks to patients were assessed and safely managed.
• 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.
• 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.
• Patients said they could book urgent appointments when they needed to and these were available the same day.
• 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. We found positive working relationships between the staff.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the Duty of Candour.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice had an effective complaints system which was supported by a lead clinician who was the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman representative.

• The practice had developed a ‘Digital (dynamic) Care Plan’ system. This enabled selected patients to self-manage their care and for actionable information and proactive care planning and delivery.

• The practice had participated with the Healthy Hearts campaign and won the General Practice Team of the year award for 2015.

• The practice was a pilot site for NHS England to develop the accessible information standard. This tells organisations how they should ensure that disabled patients receive information in formats that they can understand.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Remove fabric chairs from clinical rooms and replace with wipeable materials

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice