Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a comprehensive inspection of Stokewood Surgery, Fair Oak Road, Fair Oak, Hampshire, SO50 8AU on 18 November 2014. Overall the practice is rated as good.

This practice has a branch surgery at Old Anchor Surgery, Riverside, Bishopstoke. Eastleigh. SO50 6LQ. We did not inspect the branch surgery.

We found that Stokewood Surgery is a good practice overall with a strategy and track record of continuous improvement for care and responded to the needs of patients living in the area. The practice was rated as good in the population groups we looked at.

Our key findings were as follows:

• Patients were complimentary about the care and support they received from staff.
• Staff told us they were committed to providing a service that put patients first.
• The practice responded to the changing needs of the different populations groups that used the practice.
• The practice had undertaken major internal refurbishment of the ground floor.
• The practice joined the Wessex GP Educational Trust in 2012. The Wessex GP Educational Trust (WGPET) was formed in 1990 to provide funding for educational events run by GP Tutors. It continues to fund a wide range of events from one hour lectures to week-long refresher courses throughout the Wessex Deanery.
• The partners have weekly meetings with the community care team and community matron.
• The practice was above the national average for satisfaction with phone access, opening hours and reported good overall experience of making an appointment.
• The practice showed good child immunisation percentages, which were above the percentage receiving vaccinations across the rest of the Clinical Commissioning Group.
• The practice showed a better than average result in areas such as maintaining a register of all patients in need of palliative care or support irrespective of age and maintaining a register of patients aged 18 or over with learning disabilities.

We saw areas of outstanding practice including:

•The practice employed a medicines adviser who worked closely with patients and pharmacists to improve efficiency in prescribing.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice