Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection 4 August 2015 – 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

The population groups are rated as:

Older People – Good

People with long-term conditions – Good

Families, children and young people – Good

Working age people (including those recently retired and students – Good

People whose circumstances may make them vulnerable – Good

People experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia) - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Blake House Surgery on 3 November 2017 as part of our 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.

• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.

• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

• The practice had a comprehensive programme of quality improvement activity and routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care provided.

• The practice proactively identified patients who were carers and had identified 141 patients as carers (5.7% of the practice list).

• The practice made reasonable adjustments when patients found it hard to access services.For example, by providing a medicine delivery service to housbound patients and introducing a voluntary driver scheme to support patients to attend appointments.

• The practice welcomed and acted upon feedback from patients and communicated widely using the website and local parish newsletter.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Continue to review processes for patients with severe infections to embed NICE guidance.

• Continue to review processes for gaining written consent from patients where invasive treatment is required.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Blake House Surgery on 4 August 2015. 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.
• The practice used innovative and proactive methods to improve patient outcomes, working with other local providers to share best practice.
• Feedback from patients about their care was consistently and strongly positive.

• The practice worked closely with other organisations and with the local community in planning how services were provided to ensure that they meet people’s needs. For example, GPs provided medical cover each day at the community hospital.

• The practice implemented suggestions for improvements and made changes to the way it delivered services as a consequence of feedback from patients and from the patient participation group.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• Information about how to complain was available and easy to understand
• The practice had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority in delivering person centred care and treatment.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice