Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Centre Practice on 28 April 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• We found there was strong staff morale and resilience in the practice, with high levels of team cohesion within the practice team.
• 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 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.
• 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.
• In April 2016, the practice was successful in achieving ‘dementia friendly’ status. All staff had additional training in recognising and supporting people with dementia and the practice environment was dementia friendly with appropriate signage.

• There was a strong commitment to safety culture in the practice. This came across clearly through staff discussions and in the approach to adopting and championing new initiatives like sign up to safety and investing in infection control training tools.

• The practice supported patients who had no fixed address, by regularly reviewing their care and ensuring they only received weekly prescriptions to help reduce the risk of the patient from medicine or prescription theft.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We spoke with six patients and two relatives who attended the surgery on the day of our inspection and six patients who represented the Patient Participation Group (PPG). Five of the patients were complimentary about the staff and GP services they provided. They told us they "could generally get an appointment when they needed it". One person said it was difficult to get an appointment with their own GP. Three of the six patients explained to us they were offered either a telephone call or an appointment with a GP if they needed it. One patient told us they had always been seen on the day if it was needed and had never been turned away. Two of the patients we spoke with were attending one of the practice’s specialist’s clinics with the practice nurse. Patients who used the GP practice received safe and appropriate care, treatment and support.

The provider took adequate steps to ensure patients were protected against the risks of receiving care or treatment that was inappropriate or unsafe. The staff we spoke with showed knowledge and understanding of safeguarding and the process to follow if they discovered abuse. They knew how to recognise the signs of abuse and how they should report all cases of concern to the appropriate safeguarding team. Patients were protected from the risk of infection because appropriate guidance had been followed.

The provider had an effective system to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service that patients received The provider and practice manager were aware of the need to assure themselves that all new staff were recruited correctly.

In this report there was three regulated activities recorded when there are five for the service type. The provider was in the process of registering for the additional two regulated activities, surgical procedures and maternity and midwifery services, at the time of our inspection.