Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr Lothe & Partners on 16 June 2016. The practice had been rated as good for safe, caring, responsive and well led. However, required improvement in safe. After the comprehensive inspection, the practice sent to us an action plan detailing what they would do to meet the legal requirements in relation to the following:-

• Ensure that all staff undertake the practices’ schedule of mandatory training, including basic life support (BLS), safeguarding children and vulnerable adults, fire safety and information governance.

We undertook this announced focused inspection on 10 November 2016 to check that the provider had followed their action plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements. The provider was now meeting all requirements and is rated as good under the safe domain.

This report only covers our findings in relation to those requirements.

• The practice had created a new training matrix and staff had been notified of outstanding training requirements. We saw evidence that all staff were up to date with the practices mandatory training. Which included, basic life support and using a defibrillator training, information governance, safeguarding vulnerable adults and children, dementia awareness, equality and diversity, infection control and fire safety.

This report should be read in conjunction with the last report from 16 June 2016. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr Lothe & Partners on 16 June 2016 Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• 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.
• 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.
• The practice participated in the hospital admission avoidance scheme and maintained a register of patients who were at high risk of a hospital admission.
• The practice was able to offer in house exercise information and joint injections. GPs referred patients to an in house NHS physiotherapy team and to Surrey Heath Orthopedic Treatment and Therapy Service (SHORTTs).
• The practice was open from 8am to 8pm and provided nurse, GP and phlebotomy services throughout that time.
• Results from the national GP patient survey, published January 2016, showed that patient’s were satisfied with how they could access care and treatment.

The area where the provider must make improvement are:

• Ensure that all staff undertake the practices’ schedule of mandatory training, including Basic Life Support (BLS), safeguarding children and vulnerable adults, fire safety and information governance.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)

Chief Inspector of General Practice