Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr Henderson and Partners (also known as Bassett Road Surgery) on 7 April 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• 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. The practice uses various in-house resources such as the complex needs matron and a pharmacist to optimise health outcomes.
• 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.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their 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 GP but sometimes longer 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.

We saw two areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice understood the needs of patients needing end of life care and homeless people, they had introduced a priority colour coded system that gave immediate access to a GP so their clinical care needs were assessed immediately and outcomes optimised.

• The practice had identified the care needs of the homeless. In conjunction with local partners the practice supported the delivery of the Homeless Healthcare service for South Bedfordshire which included weekly outreach visits, health checks and meetings with clinical and social care partners to provide for their needs.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We reviewed the information available to us about Dr Henderson and Partners on 23 May 2019. We did not find evidence of significant changes to the quality of service being provided since the last inspection. As a result, we decided not to inspect the surgery at this time. We will continue to monitor this information about this service throughout the year and may inspect the surgery when we see evidence of potential changes.