Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Brailsford and Hulland Medical Practice on 30 November 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 to report incidents. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, and appropriately reviewed.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. This was kept under review by the practice which proactively used audit as a way of ensuring that patients received safe and effective care.

• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed. Regular liaison meetings were held with the wider multi-disciplinary team to co-ordinate the provision of effective and responsive care. There was good evidence of collaborative working including end of life care and safeguarding. The Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) pharmacist attached to the practice provided regular and effective support on medicines issues.

• All members of the practice team had received an annual appraisal and had undertaken training appropriate to their roles, with any further training needs identified and supported by the practice.

• Results from the national GP survey, and responses to our conversations with patients showed that patients were treated with compassion, dignity and respect, and that they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.

• Urgent appointments were available on the day they were requested and there was good access to routine appointments which could be booked up to a year in advance. However, patients said that they sometimes had to wait a long time for non-urgent appointments and to see their preferred GP
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management, although there was no clear vision for the future of the practice that had been shared with staff.

• The practice proactively sought feedback from patients, which it acted upon and they had implemented changes as a consequence of feedback from patients and from the Patient Participation Group (PPG).

However there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements. Importantly the provider should:

• Consider how their vision for the future of the practice is shared with staff

• Review the arrangements for cascading learning from significant events to try and prevent recurrence.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We reviewed the information available to us about Brailsford and Hulland 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.