Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Colne Valley Family Doctors on 5 August 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles.
• There were systems in place to reduce risks to patient safety, for example infection prevention and control procedures and health and safety assessments.
• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and to report incidents, near misses and any identified safeguarding issues.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• The practice sought patient views on how improvements could be made to the service, through the use of patient surveys and the patient representation group.
• Urgent appointments were available for patients the same day as requested, although not necessarily with a GP of their choice.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and were involved in care and decisions about their treatment.

We saw an area of outstanding practice:

• The practice had participated in a local medicines management initiative and could evidence significant improvements in prescribing and patient understanding. As a result of the achievements the polypharmacy scheme had been shortlisted for an award by a national health journal.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice