Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We undertook this focused inspection of Heaton Medical Centre on 18 October 2016 for one area within the key question safe.

We found the practice to be good in providing safe services. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

The practice was previously inspected on 20 October 2015. The inspection was a comprehensive inspection under the Health and Social Care Act 2008. At that inspection, the practice was rated good overall. However, within the key question safe, overview of safety systems and processes was identified as requires improvement, as the practice was not meeting the legislation at that time; Regulation 12 Health & Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014: Safe care and treatment.

• The registered person did not ensure recruitment arrangements include all necessary employment checks for all staff were in place that included taking up references and completing disclosure and barring service checks, in particular for reception staff who were already undertaking chaperoning duties.

On this inspection we reviewed a range of documents which demonstrated they were now meeting the requirements of Regulation 12 Health & Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014: Safe care and treatment.

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 Heaton Centre on 20 October 2015. 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 to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.

• 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.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment but not necessarily with a named GP. 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 and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.

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

Importantly the provider must:

• Ensure that a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check or risk assessment is in place for reception staff who carry out the role of a chaperone.

Importantly the provider should:

• Ensure the clinical audit cycle is completed for all audits.
• Ensure cleaning schedules in place are signed daily.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Heaton Medical Practice had a large well maintained reception area which had leaflets and information available for patients. Patients were called through from the waiting area to the GP’s consulting room via the use of an electronic board which detailed the person’s name, the GP they were to see and the room for their consultation.

The practice had electronic records in place to accurately describe the contact patients had with the service and the actions taken to provide appropriate care and treatment.

We found staff had access to contact details for both child protection and adult safeguarding teams. They were able to describe the appropriate actions they would take for safeguarding concerns.

The practice had a range of policies and procedures in place for staff to access, which supported the safe running of the service. The practice manager described the regular audits/reports which the practice completed following any significant event.

We observed the consulting and treatment rooms appeared clean, well lit and fully stocked to carry out the required procedures. Procedures for the safe storage and disposal of needles and waste products were evident in order to protect the staff and patients from harm.

Patients were cared for by staff who had been appropriately recruited following a robust recruitment process.

Patients told us; “The practice is really clean”. “I have always been treated well here, everyone is lovely”.

We reviewed the information available to us about Heaton Medical Centre on 11 June 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.