This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous rating August 2015 – Good)

The key questions at this inspection are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Arbury Medical Centre on 8 January 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

• Urgent same day patient appointments were available when needed. All patients we spoke with and those who completed comment cards before our inspection said they were always able to obtain same day appointments and access care when needed.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care delivered in line with current guidelines. Staff had the appropriate skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Results from the national GP patient survey revealed a high level of patient satisfaction about the care given at the practice which was either in-line with or above local and national averages. For example, 83% of patients who responded said that the last time they had a general practice appointment, the healthcare professional was good or very good at treating them with care and concern and 94% had confidence and trust in the healthcare professional they saw or spoke to.
• Patients said GPs gave them enough time and treated them with dignity and respect.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice

Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Arbury Medical Centre on 20 August 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good for providing safe, effective, caring responsive and well led services.

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

• The practice facilities were good and located in a modern purpose built building which was suitably equipped to meet the needs of patients.
• Safety was prioritised by the practice. We saw that appropriate procedures were in place to minimise any potential risk to patients.
• Staff were fully aware of their responsibility to identify and raise concerns. This included incidents and near misses. Details of any incidents were discussed with staff as a learning experience.
• Patients knew how they could make a complaint and the practice had an appropriate complaints procedure in place.
• Patients we spoke with told us they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect by all staff at the practice. They told us they were involved with decisions about their care and staff took time to explain things to them.
• We saw the practice assessed the needs of its patients’ in line with current best practice guidance. Staff received training which was appropriate to their roles. This was regularly updated.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We spoke with six patients. One patient told us, ‘’I’ve had good experiences apart from trying to get an appointment. Once I’ve got through to the practice I can get an appointment for that day.’’

We spoke with four staff, the registered provider and two community professionals who had worked in collaboration with the practice. The community teams we spoke with identified that good working relationships existed between themselves and the practice.

We found effective communication and referral pathways existed between the practice and other healthcare professionals. Patients told us that their GP had supported them throughout the referral process. We saw that patients had been involved in making decisions about their care and treatment and forums existed to encourage patients to air their views.

Systems and guidance were in place to protect children. Staff were able to identify what to do should a child safeguarding event take place. There were no systems in place to protect vulnerable adults and staff had not received training in the safeguarding of vulnerable adults.

We saw systems in place to assess and monitor complaints at the practice.