Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Doctors Taylor, Syam and Sreelatha at Stuart Road Surgery on 10 May 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.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• 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 there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
• 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.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

We saw two areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice had established a duty doctor system and nurse led minor injuries clinics as a way of managing urgent demand. It had been successful in meeting demand and provided more flexible access to medical care.

• The practice provided a diabetic clinic that was delivered in conjunction with a local secondary care provider. The service offered specialist care management and enhanced services such as insulin initiation. The provision of these services withinprimary care meant that patients do not need to attend secondary care settings such as hospitals to receive treatment.

There was an area where the provider should make improvement:

• The practice should ensure that fire training and information governance training was up to date and delivered for all members of staff.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

The practice is registered with CQC to provide the following regulated activities:

Diagnostic and screening procedures

Family planning

Maternity and midwifery services

Surgical procedures

Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

We spoke with 13 patients and reviewed 40 CQC comment cards which were completed by patients on the day of the inspection. The majority of the feedback we received was positive. Patients said they were treated with dignity, empathy and respect.

Some aspects of the service are safe. Appropriate arrangements for managing safeguarding are in place. Most areas of the practice are clean. Medicines are mostly well managed. Disclosure and barring checks (DBS) are not always carried out before employment commences. We have asked the provider to address these issues.

Some aspects of the service are effective.

Patients told us they receive a caring service and are treated with dignity and respect.

Some aspects of the service are responsive. The practice has an active patient participation group (PPG) in place, actively seeks patient feedback and is responsive to it. However, no records are available to show complaints have been investigated and by whom.

Some aspects of the service are not well led. Leadership roles and responsibilities were not clear, there were few systems in place for monitoring quality and there was a lack of staff engagement.