Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of Dr Katie Parkinson on 18 January 2017. The overall rating for the practice was good with requires improvement for safe.

The full comprehensive report from the January 2017 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Dr Katie Parkinson on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 14 June 2017 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 18 January 2017;

• Regulation 12 Health & Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 Safe care and treatment.

The areas identified as requiring improvement during our inspection in January 2017 were as follows:

• Ensure ongoing management of controlled drugs in line with legislation.
• Ensure repeat prescriptions are signed prior to medicines being given to patients.
• Complete a risk assessment of emergency medicines including the need to carry additional emergency medicine stock.

In addition, the practice were told they should:

• Consider reviewing the process for identifying significant events and near misses.
• Record actions taken in relation to safety alerts.
• Ensure that systems are implemented to assess the risk of and to prevent, detect and control the spread of infection including routine audit processes.
• Ensure an appropriate system is in place for the safe use of blank prescriptions.
• Complete a periodic review of practice specific policies.

Overall the practice is now rated as good in all areas.

Our focused inspection on 14 June 2017 showed that improvements had been made and our key findings across the areas we inspected were as follows:

• The controlled drugs standard operating procedure had been reviewed and was in line with legislation. The controlled drugs register was appropriately maintained including accurate records of stock levels.
• The provider had implemented a repeat prescribing policy and arrangements were in place to ensure prescriptions were issued appropriately.
• The provider had completed a risk assessment of emergency medicines and had updated their emergency medicine stock.
• The process for identifying significant events and near misses had been improved.
• The provider maintained a log of safety alerts and recorded actions taken to improve safety in the practice.
• Systems and processes to assess the risk of and to prevent, detect and control the spread of infection had been reviewed and the practice had completed an infection prevention and control audit.
• An appropriate system was in place for the safe use of blank prescriptions.
• The provider had undertaken a review of their policies.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice