Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at the Chapelgreen Practice on 30 June 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Risks to patients were generally 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.
• Most 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 provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

We saw two areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice was committed to becoming a learning organisation and had created their own ‘in house’ learning programme for all practice staff. The workshops, based around identified priorities from the practice development plan, provided a forum for open discussion, the sharing of ideas and creating change to be embedded in the practice culture.  This had given each member of the practice team the opportunity to contribute and their personal involvement is written up in their personal development plan and discussed at appraisal.

• The practice had provided a series of tutorials and workplace opportunities to develop insights into leadership development across the practice team. The aim was to allow staff to develop insights into personal capacity and encourage a critical eye to seek new improvements and make recommendations for change.  Areas of practice that had been discussed and improved through this method included; continuity of care in home visits and patient access to appointments.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We reviewed the information available to us about Burncross Surgery on 7 June 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.