Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Gossops Green Medical Centre on 19 January 2016. The overall rating for the practice was good, but breaches of legal requirements were found in the safe domain. The practice was found to be good in the effective, caring, responsive and well-led domains but requires improvement in the safe domain. The full comprehensive report on the January 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Gossops Green Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

At the previous inspection of January 2016 our key findings were as follows:

• Not all systems and processes to address risks were implemented well enough to ensure patients and staff were kept safe. Specifically not all Patient Group Directions (PGDs) had been completed in line with legislation, blank printer prescriptions were not always stored securely and no children’s oxygen masks could be located on the day. These findings were in breach of the legal requirements

Additionally we found that:

• The practice should seek to improve the information displayed in the patient waiting room to meet the needs of the local population.

• The practice should improve processes to engage with the patient reference group in order to gather feedback and involve patients in the delivery of the service.

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 19 January 2017 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 19 January 2016. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.

Overall the practice is now rated as good.

Our key findings were as follows:

• All systems and processes to address risks were now implemented well and ensured patients and staff were kept safe. Specifically all Patient Group Directions (PGDs) had been completed in line with legislation, blank printer prescriptions were stored securely and children’s oxygen masks were available.

Additionally we saw that:

• There was a good selection of information available to patients in relation to local support services.

• The practice engaged with the patient reference group and involved patients in the delivery of the service. In particular members of the group acted as a link with the Crawley voluntary service and also a local social group linked to a new social prescribing pilot scheme. (Social prescribing is a means of enabling primary care services to refer patients with social, emotional or practical needs to a range of local, non-clinical services, often provided by the voluntary and community sector.)

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Gossops Green Medical Centre on 19 January 2016. The overall rating for the practice was good, but breaches of legal requirements were found in the safe domain. The practice was found to be good in the effective, caring, responsive and well-led domains but requires improvement in the safe domain. The full comprehensive report on the January 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Gossops Green Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

At the previous inspection of January 2016 our key findings were as follows:

• Not all systems and processes to address risks were implemented well enough to ensure patients and staff were kept safe. Specifically not all Patient Group Directions (PGDs) had been completed in line with legislation, blank printer prescriptions were not always stored securely and no children’s oxygen masks could be located on the day. These findings were in breach of the legal requirements

Additionally we found that:

• The practice should seek to improve the information displayed in the patient waiting room to meet the needs of the local population.

• The practice should improve processes to engage with the patient reference group in order to gather feedback and involve patients in the delivery of the service.

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 19 January 2017 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 19 January 2016. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.

Overall the practice is now rated as good.

Our key findings were as follows:

• All systems and processes to address risks were now implemented well and ensured patients and staff were kept safe. Specifically all Patient Group Directions (PGDs) had been completed in line with legislation, blank printer prescriptions were stored securely and children’s oxygen masks were available.

Additionally we saw that:

• There was a good selection of information available to patients in relation to local support services.

• The practice engaged with the patient reference group and involved patients in the delivery of the service. In particular members of the group acted as a link with the Crawley voluntary service and also a local social group linked to a new social prescribing pilot scheme. (Social prescribing is a means of enabling primary care services to refer patients with social, emotional or practical needs to a range of local, non-clinical services, often provided by the voluntary and community sector.)

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We spoke with six people who used the service who had attended on the day of inspection for an appointment. These patients were randomly selected. All agreed to us observing their consultations and speaking to us after this took place.

We spoke with staff that included; the practice manager, two practice nurses, a receptionist and the registered manager, who was the lead general practitioner (GP). We also spoke with a midwife who although not employed directly by the surgery offered a service to people. We also spoke with the representative of the Patients Representation Group.

We used a number of different methods to help us understand the experiences of people who used the service. We spent time talking with people and observing the interactions between staff and people. We reviewed records and systems.

When registered the provider declared compliance with all outcome areas.

We found that people were treated with respect and had treatment options discussed with them. People felt involved in their care and treatment.

We saw that there were effective infection control measures in place to prevent the spread of infection.

We looked at the processes that the practice had in place to ensure the people who used the service were protected from abuse. These processes ensured staff had an understanding of adult and child abuse and what to do if it was suspected.

We found that people understood how to make a complaint or how to raise concerns. They were helped to complete this process if necessary. The provider responded to complaints and kept these under review.