Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Chamberlayne Road Surgery on 12 February 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. The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment. Staff had been trained and their competencies assessed to carry out their roles.
• 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 named GP and urgent appointments were available the same day.
• The practice was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs and was accessible to patients with disabilities.
• 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.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

• The practice ensured that low-risk patients were able to get a repeat prescription for the contraceptive pill without delay. The practice had designed a short self-complete risk assessment for women who required a repeat prescription. Women were asked to take their own blood pressure (a blood pressure machine was available in the practice) and include the results with their completed form. This ensured that women at low-risk of complications were not delayed by having to wait for an appointment with a doctor to receive a repeat prescription, increasing the risk of unplanned pregnancy. 

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• The practice should recruit or hire a nurse to provide more practice nurse sessions. This would make better use of the clinical team's skills and resources.
• The practice should monitor patients' telephone access to the service and appointment booking system. We noted that patient feedback about telephone access was positive, but the telephone line was typically only operational for 4.5 hours a day. Patients ringing outside of these hours, even when the practice was open, were directed to attend local urgent care centres, the NHS '111' service or the practice deputising service if they were experiencing an urgent problem. 

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP 

Chief Inspector of General Practice