Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This is the report from our announced focused inspection of Dinas Lane Medical Centre.

We previously undertook a comprehensive inspection on 10 February 2015. We rated the service as requires improvement for providing safe services. We issued a Requirement Notice as a result of our findings and requested an action plan.

The provider is rated as good for providing safe services at this inspection. Our key findings were:

• The provider had met the Requirement Notice regarding satisfactory recruitment records.
• A legionella risk assessment had been carried out and action taken.
• The fire risk assessment had been updated and the practice had carried out a fire drill. Staff had received additional training.
• Information relating to the control of hazardous substances had been assessed and staff had received training.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This is the report from our inspection of Dinas Lane Medical Centre. Dinas Lane Medical Centre is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide primary care services.

We undertook a planned, comprehensive inspection on the 10 February 2015 at Dinas Lane Medical Centre. We reviewed information we held about the services and spoke with patients, GPs, and staff.

Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be outstanding for providing caring and responsive services to patients who were more vulnerable. We also found the practice to be outstanding for providing effective services for families, children and young people.  It was good overall for providing effective, caring, responsive and well led services and requires improvement for providing safe services.

Our key findings were as follows:

• There were systems in place to mitigate safety risks including analysing significant events and safeguarding. The premises were clean and tidy. Systems were in place to ensure medication including vaccines were appropriately stored and in date.

• Patients had their needs assessed in line with current guidance and the practice promoted health education to empower patients to live healthier lives.

• Feedback from patients and observations throughout our inspection highlighted the staff were kind, caring and helpful.

• The practice was responsive and acted on patient complaints and feedback.

• The practice was well led. There were governance systems in place. The staff worked well together as a team and had regular staff meetings and training.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

• The practice had open access clinics for child care including immunisations. The uptake of all immunisations for children between 12-24 months was higher than the local averages. For example for the MMR vaccination at 24months, there was a 97% uptake compared with a local average of 95.4%.

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

The provider must:

• Carry out risk assessments for those staff working with patients who have not received a disclosure and barring services check (DBS).

The provider should:

• Carry out a legionella risk assessment.
• Carry out a control of substances hazardous to health (COSHH) risk assessment that is stipulated in the practice’s health and safety policy.
• Carry out more regular fire drills and update the practice’s fire risk assessment.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice