Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We inspected this service on 29 October 2014 as part of our new comprehensive inspection programme.

The overall rating for this service is good. We found the practice to be good in the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led domains. We found the practice provided good care to older people, people with long term conditions, families, children and young people, the working age population and those recently retired, people in vulnerable circumstances and people experiencing poor mental health. 

Our key findings were as follows:

• Patients were kept safe because there were arrangements in place for staff to report and learn from key safety risks. The practice had a system in place for reporting, recording and monitoring significant events over time.
• The practice had recognised that access to appointments had been highlighted in the patient survey and was working with the Patient Participation Group (PPG) to address this.  The appointment system had been amended to provide more on the day appointments. 
• There were systems in place to keep patients safe from the risk and spread of infection.
• Evidence we reviewed demonstrated that patients were satisfied with how they were treated and that this was with compassion, dignity and respect.  It also demonstrated that the GPs were good at listening to patients and gave them enough time.
• Staff were all clear about their own roles and responsibilities, and felt valued, well supported and knew who to go to in the practice with any concerns. 

However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements. 

The provider should:

• Ensure that all equipment at the practice is serviced and calibrated.
• Review the risks associated with disruption to the cold chain and consider the need for a validated cool box for transporting vaccines. 
• Review the emergency equipment / medication available in the practice to ensure that it is required. 
• Review the referral process to secondary care services to ensure consistency and timeliness across the GPs. 

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice