Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We inspected Hampton Surgery, Fentham Hall, Marsh Lane, Hampton-in-Arden, Solihull, West Midlands, B92 0AH on 11 November 2014 as part of a comprehensive inspection.

We rated the practice as good for safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led . We also inspected the quality of care for six population groups these are, people with long term conditions, families, children and young people, working age people, older people, people in vulnerable groups and people experiencing poor mental health. We rated the care provided to these population groups as good. We rated the practice as good overall.

Our key findings were as follows:

• There were systems in place to ensure patients received a safe service.

• There was evidence of completed audit cycles undertaken to ensure patients care and treatment was effective and achieved positive outcomes.

• Patients were complimentary about the staff at the practice and said they were caring, listened and gave them sufficient time to discuss their concerns.

• The practice was responsive to the needs of the practice population. There were services aimed at specific patient groups including those with long term conditions. There were examples of outstanding practice when responding to the needs of vulnerable patients. For example,the practice recognised that patients from the traveller community were often transient and may experience difficulty accessing health services. The practice offered flexible appointments and all aspect of the patients medical health needs were assessed during routine appointments.

• There was strong and visible leadership with defined roles and responsibilities. The governance framework ensured clear lines of accountability and was well- led.

We saw an area of outstanding practice

• There was evidence of outstanding practice in responding to the needs of vulnerable patient groups such as people from the traveller community and older people. There were joint working arrangements with local health services and charitable organisations in order to develop innovative and flexible ways to help vulnerable groups access the service and improve their health and wellbeing.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous rating November 2014 – Good)

The key questions at this inspection 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 Hampton Surgery on 18 October 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.
• There was clearly defined and embedded systems, processes and practices in place to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse and for identifying and mitigating risks of health and safety.
• The practice reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence based guidelines and best practice.
• The practice worked proactively with other organisations to ensure patients had access to a range of services to support their health and wellbeing.
• The practice continued to support the local traveller community to maintain trust and relationships to encourage them to access health care.
• The practice had Armed Forces Veteran friendly accreditation.
• The practice had close links with the local lunch club organised by the local Fentham trust. The practice staff attended the group to check on elderly patients and to offer the seasonal flu vaccination.
• There was a well organised and loyal practice team.
• The practice achieved consistently higher than average scores in the national GP patient survey.
• Patients told us that staff treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect and involved them in decisions about their care and treatment.
• Patient feedback on the level of care and treatment delivered by all staff was very positive.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
• There were clear responsibilities, roles and systems of accountability to support effective governance.
• Continuous learning and improvement was actively encouraged at all levels of the organisation.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

The practice nurse was instrumental in creating a hub based service for treating leg ulcers across Solihull. This had produced marked improvements in both patient outcomes and compliance to treatment pathways which achieved healing rates close to those patients treated in hospital. The practice had supported the nurse in order to achieve this with the initial research and ongoing provision of the service.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice

Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.