Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

The practice is rated good overall and good for providing safe services.

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this practice on 31 May 2016. The overall rating for the practice was good. However, a breach of legal requirements was found during that inspection within the safe domain. After the comprehensive inspection, the practice sent us an action plan detailing what they would do to meet the legal requirements. We conducted a focused inspection on 22 February 2017 to check that the provider had followed their action plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to those requirements.

During our previous inspection on 31 May 2016 we found the following area where the practice must improve:

• Ensure the safe storage of vaccines.

Our previous report also highlighted the following areas where the practice should improve:

• Continue to improve exception reporting figures.

• Continue to improve patient satisfaction with accessing the practice by phone and with practice opening hours.

• Continue to improve the patient satisfaction with helpfulness of the reception team.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

During the inspection on 22 February 2017 we found:

• Arrangements were in place for the safe storage of vaccines.

We also found the following in relation to the areas where the practice should improve:

• The practice was taking steps to improve the exception reporting. There was now a dedicated phone line for patients to call to book their annual review and patients received a reminder call from the nursing team for patients who did not attend. Data to show the progress made since our last inspection was not yet available.

• The practice was taking steps to improve their satisfaction scores on helpfulness of the reception team. All reception staff had received training on managing challenging conversations.

• The practice had a comprehensive action plan to increase patients’ access to the practice by phone and to appointments. There was a new phone system in place and improvements to procedures for making appointments.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

The practice is rated good overall and good for providing safe services.

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this practice on 31 May 2016. The overall rating for the practice was good. However, a breach of legal requirements was found during that inspection within the safe domain. After the comprehensive inspection, the practice sent us an action plan detailing what they would do to meet the legal requirements. We conducted a focused inspection on 22 February 2017 to check that the provider had followed their action plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to those requirements.

During our previous inspection on 31 May 2016 we found the following area where the practice must improve:

• Ensure the safe storage of vaccines.

Our previous report also highlighted the following areas where the practice should improve:

• Continue to improve exception reporting figures.

• Continue to improve patient satisfaction with accessing the practice by phone and with practice opening hours.

• Continue to improve the patient satisfaction with helpfulness of the reception team.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

During the inspection on 22 February 2017 we found:

• Arrangements were in place for the safe storage of vaccines.

We also found the following in relation to the areas where the practice should improve:

• The practice was taking steps to improve the exception reporting. There was now a dedicated phone line for patients to call to book their annual review and patients received a reminder call from the nursing team for patients who did not attend. Data to show the progress made since our last inspection was not yet available.

• The practice was taking steps to improve their satisfaction scores on helpfulness of the reception team. All reception staff had received training on managing challenging conversations.

• The practice had a comprehensive action plan to increase patients’ access to the practice by phone and to appointments. There was a new phone system in place and improvements to procedures for making appointments.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We spoke with four patients who attended the practice on the day of our inspection. They were happy with the care and treatment provided by the surgery. One patient said, “It’s a lovely surgery.” Another said, “It’s very good. Excellent.” They said staff were friendly and polite and that the doctors and nurses involved them in decisions about their care. Some patients said it was sometimes difficult to make an appointment to see the doctor when they wanted to.

We spoke with two GPs, the business manager, two nurses, one receptionist and one administrator. They all said they received sufficient training and felt well supported in their roles.

Patients who used the service were protected from the risk of abuse. We saw that the practice had policies and procedures in place to safeguard children and vulnerable adults and that staff were aware of their roles and responsibilities in relation to this.

The practice had an effective system to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service that patients received. They regularly sought the views of patients through surveys and used these to improve the service. We also saw that learning took place from significant events, complaints and audits.