Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Blackburn Road Medical Centre on 15 September 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. We saw how the analysis of significant events led to additional training and changes in policy and procedure
• 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.
• We saw how the business continuity and contingency plans had been reviewed and improved in response to a major incident in Birstall, where the practice was used as an emergency refuge for staff, patients and members of the public.
• 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.
• 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 practice had strong and visible clinical and managerial leadership and governance arrangements. Staff appreciated the learning ethos of the practice and gave examples of where they had received additional training to improve their knowledge or expand their role.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

We saw two areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice took every opportunity to learn from safety concerns raised by staff to improve services. We reviewed many incidents that had been reported and reviewed. Staff were also encouraged to report positive events, record their reflections and suggest improvements. We saw how the analysis of significant events led to additional training and changes in policy and procedure. The practice also fed into the North Kirklees Clinical Commissioning Group quality issues log to improve safety in the locality.

• This practice was an outlier for dementia on the primary care assessment tool in 2015. Three healthcare assistants had received additional training to enable them to carry out mental health physical assessments. Data from 2015/16 showed that 93% of patients had received a health check. This was a 28% improvement from 2014/15 where 65% of patients received their health check (CCG average 83%, national average 84%).

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Review the process for checking emergency equipment.
• Review the storage of vaccinations in line with Public Health England guidance.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice