Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Grangewood Surgery on 5 January 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and report incidents and near misses.

• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.

• Outcomes for patients who use services were good.

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance.

• Staff were consistent and proactive in supporting patients to live healthier lives through a targeted approach to health promotion. Information was provided to patients to help them understand the care and treatment available

• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.

• The practice had a system in place for handling complaints and concerns and responded quickly to any complaints.

• Patients said they were able to get an appointment with a GP when they needed one, 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 in place and staff felt supported by management. The practice sought feedback from staff and patients, which they acted on.

• Staff throughout the practice worked well together as a team.

We saw an area of outstanding practice which was:

• The practice carried out a high rate of clinical audit which were clearly linked to the improvement of patient outcomes.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Consider a log of dates when the curtains around the treatment couches are taken down and cleaned to ensure that best practice is followed and they are cleaned every six months.

• Follow their own recruitment policy when going through the process of recruiting staff and ensure that records of this process and the vetting of staff are maintained.

• Consider an overall schedule of training so that the practice can ensure that each member of staff had received the correct training for their role and refresher training when appropriate.

• Consider introducing a practice specific information leaflet for patients wishing to make a complaint which explains the process of taking the complaint further such as to NHS England or The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We reviewed the information available to us about Grangewood Surgery on 29 May 2019. We did not find evidence of significant changes to the quality of service being provided since the last inspection. As a result, we decided not to inspect the surgery at this time. We will continue to monitor this information about this service throughout the year and may inspect the surgery when we see evidence of potential changes.