Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Eagle House Surgery on 10 June 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing well-led, effective, caring and responsive and safe services. It was also good for providing services for older people, people with long term conditions, working age and recently retired people, families, children and young people, people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable and people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia).

Our key findings 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.
• Risks to patients were generally assessed and well managed. The fire risk assessment identified actions to ensure fire safety that had not been completed in full.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• The practice carried out home visits for over 75 year old health checks to identify issues that may have an impact on their health and wellbeing
• 94.7% of patients described their experience of making an appointment as good compared to the clinical commissioning group average of 81.9% and national average of 73.8%.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a GP and that 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.

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

Importantly the provider should

• The provider should ensure that all actions required from the fire risk assessment in February 2014 have been completed to improve the fire safety at the practice.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection June 2015 – Good)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Eagle House Surgery on 24 April 2018, as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

• The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
• The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
• The practice was proactive in promoting patient education on their conditions and self- management.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Results from comment cards, the Family and Friends Test and the GP National Patient survey shower consistent high levels of satisfaction with the care and treatment provided.
• The practice had developed a specific carer’s pack which included information on healthy caring and healthy ageing. They had also developed a carer’s self-assessment tool, to identify areas where support might be needed.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
• The practice was responsive to patients’ needs and tailored services to meet them. For example, in dementia care.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

In March 2017 the lead nurse received a Queen’s Nursing Institute Award to develop a project targeting pre-retirement men who were overweight, using a pro-active and flexible approach resulted in exceeding targets and receiving additional funding from the Institute.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice