Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a comprehensive inspection on 12 November 2014. As part of the inspection we visited both the Edington Surgery, also known as the Polden Medical Practice and the branch surgery in Woolavington.

Overall the services are rated as good. This is because we found both practices to be good for providing an effective, caring, responsive and well-led service. They were also good for providing services for all of the population groups. The practice required improvement for providing safe services. This was because the practice did not manage blank hand written prescription forms in accordance with national guidance as these were not tracked through the practice or kept securely at all times

Following the comprehensive inspection in November 2014, the provider sent an action plan detailing the steps they would take to meet the breaches in regulations.

During this focussed inspection we found the provider had taken appropriate action in respect of the management and security of blank hand written prescription forms. The safe domain is now rated as safe, with the overall practice being rated as good for all domains and population groups.

This report covers our findings in relation to the requirements and should be read in conjunction with the report published in April 2015. This can be done by selecting the 'all reports' link for Edington Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

At this inspection we found:

• All prescriptions including hand written prescriptions were stored securely.

• The practice had implemented a new policy and procedure for the receipt, storage, distribution and usage of prescriptions forms.

• The practice had implemented a system to track prescription pads in order to account for prescriptions issued to the practice and to individual prescribers.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a comprehensive inspection on 12 November 2014. As part of the inspection we visited both the Edington Surgery, also known as the Polden Medical Practice and the newly opened branch surgery in Woolavington.

Overall the services are rated as good. This is because we found both practices to be good for providing an effective, caring, responsive and well-led service . They were was also good for providing services for the older patients, patients with long term conditions, patients who were working or newly retired including students, mothers babies and young patients, patients with poor mental health and patients whose circumstances make them vulnerable. It required improvement for providing safe services.

Our key findings were as follows:

• There were good systems in place to ensure patients safety such as infection control arrangements and the management and dispensing of medicines.

• The practice had sufficient staff to meet patient’s needs and worked collaboratively with other services to ensure their healthcare was good.

• Patients were treated with kindness and respect and the practice offered good support to patients who had caring responsibilities.

• The practice was committed to providing patients good opportunities to see a GP at a time that suited them and listened to what patients had to say about the service.

• Staff had opportunities for training and development and were supported by a good leadership team that included the partner GPs and practice manager.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

• The practice had implemented the Somerset house of Care Record to empower patients by giving them test results in advance of appointments. This enabled them to consider treatment options in advance of their appointment.

• The practice manager was a volunteer ‘Community First Responder’ for the ambulance service and was working with the patient participation group (PPG) to recruit more volunteers to work in the communities served by the practice. First Responders were volunteers asked by the Ambulance Communications Centre to attend medical emergencies in their area.

• Patients with skin conditions were able to get early diagnosis of their condition. The GP who provided dermatology services linked with a consultant at the hospital and used ‘tele-dermatology’ to send photographs of skin conditions to the consultant in advance of referral for specialist consultation. This made the treatment of skin conditions more effective as treatment could be carried out more quickly.

• Patients with long term conditions and older patients were given emergency information ‘pot’ donated by a charity. This enabled patients to record information about their condition and medicines for in the event of an emergency. The pots were widely recognised by emergency services and helped give information if patients were unable to do so.

However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

Importantly the provider must:

• Keep blank hand written prescription forms in accordance with national guidance as these were not tracked through the practice or kept securely at all times

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice