Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Eastbourne Station Health Centre on 28 July 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.
• Some risks to patients were assessed and well managed. However we noted that there was no Legionella risk assessment available and the practice did not have a clear system of assessing that electrical equipment had been checked and was considered safe to use.
• 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.
• Medicines and prescribing were generally managed in a safe and effective way, however there was no effective system in place for following up patients when repeat prescriptions had not been picked up by the patient.
• 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.
• The practice provided both general practice services with a list of patients registered to the practice and also a GP led walk in service open to unregistered as well as registered patients.
• The practice was open from 8am to 8pm and saw all patients that presented during that time.
• The practice saw 95% to 99% of patients using the walk in service within two hours.
• Patients registered with the practice 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. Registered patients could also use the walk in service.
• 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.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

To liaise formally with the local fire service to consider and action ways of carrying out fire evacuation rehearsals.

To continue to assess ways of improving the uptake of national screening programmes by eligible patients.

To monitor the effectiveness of their new system for dealing with repeat prescriptions that have not been collected.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice