Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This was a follow up desk-based review carried out on 9 February 2017, to confirm the practice had met the areas for improvement that we identified on our previous inspection on 23 February 2016 and 25 May 2016. The full comprehensive report can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for City Road Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This report covers our findings in relation to those improvements.

Overall the practice is now rated as Good.

Our key findings were as follows:

• The practice had undertaken disclosure and barring service (DBS) checks for staff members who chaperoned. (DBS checks identify whether a person has a criminal record or is on an official list of people barred from working in roles where they may have contact with children or adults who may be vulnerable).

• The practice was able to demonstrate that they had formally considered the risks for not having oxygen on the premises.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We previously inspected City Road Medical Practice on 12 February 2014. At the time we found one area of non-compliance which we judged had a moderate impact on patients who used the service. We found that there were no procedures in place for dealing with medical emergencies which are reasonably expected to arise from time to time. We set compliance actions and told the provider to improve.

We gave short notice of this inspection so that any disruption to people's care and treatment were minimised. We spoke with the registered manager. We found that the provider had made the necessary improvements.

We saw that additional systems had been put in place to ensure that medication management practices were robust.

On the day of the inspection we spoke with two reception staff who also worked as healthcare assistants (HCAs). We also spoke with the assistant practice manager and the GP. The practice manager was away on leave at the time of our inspection visit. We also spoke with four patients, all the patients were positive about their experience at the surgery. One patient said, “The best, I can’t praise it enough.” Another patient said, “The GP has an enormous amount of equality, he sticks up for the underdog.” All the patients also told us that other staff at the surgery were polite, helpful and respectful.

Most patients felt they were involved in their care because the GP had taken time to explain things to them. However, we found that the surgery did not have appropriate arrangements in place for dealing with medical emergencies. This meant that the surgery did not ensure the needs of patients would be met during an emergency.

Staff members had received training in safeguarding and were aware of the appropriate agencies to refer safeguarding concerns to. This ensured that patients were protected from harm.

We found that staff had received appropriate training for the roles they carried out. They also had regular appraisals. This meant that they had been adequately assessed as being competent.

The provider had some systems in place for monitoring the quality of service provision. The provider demonstrated learning from accidents and incidents.

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This was a follow up desk-based review carried out on 9 February 2017, to confirm the practice had met the areas for improvement that we identified on our previous inspection on 23 February 2016 and 25 May 2016. The full comprehensive report can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for City Road Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This report covers our findings in relation to those improvements.

Overall the practice is now rated as Good.

Our key findings were as follows:

• The practice had undertaken disclosure and barring service (DBS) checks for staff members who chaperoned. (DBS checks identify whether a person has a criminal record or is on an official list of people barred from working in roles where they may have contact with children or adults who may be vulnerable).

• The practice was able to demonstrate that they had formally considered the risks for not having oxygen on the premises.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice