Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We inspected Danes Camp Surgery on 28 October 2014, as part of our new, comprehensive inspection programme. The practice had not previously been inspected.

The overall rating for this practice is good. We found the practice to be, safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs and well-led. There were some areas of practice that require improvement to ensure it was operating safely. The quality of care experienced by older people, by people with long-term conditions and by families, children and young people was good. Working age people, those in vulnerable circumstances and people experiencing poor mental health also received good quality care.

Our key findings were as follows:

• The practice was a friendly, caring and responsive practice that addressed patients’ needs and that worked in partnership with other health and social care services to deliver individualised care.
• The clinical and administrative team had a good understanding of the needs of their patient population, particularly in relation to patients who were at most risk of poor health whose care was managed through personalised care plans.
• The practice assured the quality of their performance by carrying out a range of clinical audits.
• Staff were properly trained for their roles.
• The practice performed well according to nationally collected data about its performance with the exception of patients’ experience of the availability of appointments.
• Although patients reported poor availability of appointments, the consultation sessions ran to time and there were often un-booked appointments available at the end of the sessions.
• Patients were treated with respect, dignity and kindness.
• The practice enabled people with long term conditions to book appointments at times of their choosing as opposed to solely during routine clinics.
• The practice had invested heavily in an extensive refurbishment programme that would increase the premises’ capacity and enable the practice to increase its list and provide additional services.

However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

The provider should:

• Make all staff aware of the designated lead GP for safeguarding matters.
• Keep a record of ‘actual’ temperatures, as well as maximum and minimum, so they can be assured that the fridges reach a safe operating temperature within the recommended range.
• Carry out an infection control audit to be assured that their performance in this area is safe.
• Take steps to ensure there is resilience in their capacity to operate safely in the event of multiple staff absence.
• Remove the seal of the automated external defibrillator to ensure it is readily available during an emergency and to enable a periodic visual check to be made of it.
• Update their business continuity plan and ensure it contains specific details to support staff to deal with an emergency or major incident.
• Engage with NENE CCG and with NHS England to ensure that there is a clear, shared vision about how the practice’s new capacity and additional services brought about by their extensive building expansion, would meet the needs of the local health economy.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice