This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection Jan 2017 – Good)

The key questions 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 inspection at Balfour Road Surgery on 31 July 2018. We undertook this inspection as there had been a change in the partnership of the practice and as part of our continuous inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

• The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
• The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• The practice was aware of the cultural make-up of its population and delivered care and services accordingly. An example of this was the practice offering non- porcine gelatine based child vaccines.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
• There was a focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
• The practice and PPG worked together to ensure that high quality care was delivered and could be accessed easily at the practice.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Consider sepsis refresher training for all staff.
• Improve online presence to enable patients to access and view services provided.
• Consider ways of how to improve the practice uptake of bowel screening for relevant patients.
• Obtain paediatric pulse oximeter for the emergency medicines kit.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice