Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr R Khanchandani's Practice on 12 November 2014.

The practice achieved an overall rating of Good. This was based on our rating of all of the five domains. Each of the six population groups we looked at achieved the same good rating.

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

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• 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.

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

Importantly the provider should:

• Ensure staff are up-to-date in role specific safeguarding training
• Introduce suitable measures to audit the effectiveness of the infection control policy
• Ensure the cloth covered chairs in the waiting room at the Link Surgery are replaced as per the practice’s recently agreed replacement programme
• Ensure all staff are familiar with fire evacuation procedures
• Make available written information for carers to ensure they understood the various avenues of support available to them
• Check that the learning points implemented from the analysis of significant events has had the desired effect and changed clinical care and practice
• Monitor the newly introduced documented system at the Link Surgery so medicines are stored securely and kept at the required temperatures

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

During our inspection, we found the service to be welcoming with friendly staff. We spoke with the majority of the staff available during our visit and nine people attending the practice as patients.

We found information was clearly displayed throughout the surgery for people using the service, including health promotion leaflets and information about the practice including the services available. In addition people were advised about how to raise any concerns if they were not happy with the service provided.

A touch screen facility enabled people to announce their arrival and the reception area was fully staffed. All of the surgeries and treatment rooms were on the ground floor and the practice was fully accessible to all.

People told us they had confidence in the staff working out of the practice. Most people were happy with the appointment system, although three people told us they would prefer the opportunity to book appointments on the day rather than have a system whereby they could arrive and wait to be seen.

Thee provider had systems in place to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service that people receive. Some of these systems involved contacting the people who use the service to ascertain their opinions.

We reviewed the quality monitoring systems used within the service and saw these to be effective, with evidence of learning from areas identified through feedback from patients, audits and monitoring.