Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Beech Hill Medical Practice on 17 May 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised.
• 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 they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day. However at peak times telephone access was not timely.
• 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.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice had a nurse reception and nursing team based away from the main reception. They provided nurse led chronic disease management and monitoring. This was an experienced and stable team that provided a high standard of patient care, confidentiality and good continuity of care for all population groups who used this service.

• The practice had a well-established walk in clinic for under five year olds. There were no appointments needed and parents knew they could bring their unwell child to the practice and they will be seen on that day.

The areas where the provider should make improvements:

• Introduce a more structured programme of clinical audits and ensure the clinical audit cycle is completed for all audits in support of the practice quality improvement programme.
• Review the current system in place for monitoring and disseminating any alerts that the practice receives to provide assurances that all relevant staff are aware of them.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We reviewed the information available to us about Beech Hill Medical Practice on 3 May 2019. We did not find evidence of significant changes to the quality of service being provided since the last inspection. As a result, we decided not to inspect the surgery at this time. We will continue to monitor this information about this service throughout the year and may inspect the surgery when we see evidence of potential changes.