Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 28 April 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• 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. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
• Patients said they generally found it easy to make an appointment and the practice encouraged continuity of care. Urgent appointments were 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.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

We noted an aspect of outstanding practice:

• The provider operated a family clinic twice a month, which gave patients an opportunity to talk about family concerns, such as children’s behaviour and well-being, or difficulties arising when a family member had a physical or mental illness. The clinical group was comprised of a partner GP, an employed counsellor and two visiting family therapists. The practice was the only one in the local CCG that offered the service.

However there was an area of practice where the provider should make improvement:

• Continue with efforts to identify patients’ carer status opportunistically, to increase the current comparatively low figure of 0.65% of patients on the practice list.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

All the patients we spoke with were satisfied with their treatment. They stated that the service was “very good” and that they got their “appointment very quickly”. They told us they had to wait to see their doctors sometimes but this did not bother them because they felt doctors knew their treatment needs. Patients told us staff were “polite and friendly” and that they were treated with respect and dignity.

We noted the practice had a policy on safeguarding and staff had appropriate levels of safeguarding training. Staff told us that they had followed the safeguarding procedure and reported an incident of concern. We saw that the practice had policies regarding recruitment, appraisals, and staff development. The provider also had a complaints policy but the patients we spoke with told us they had not seen information about it. However, they told us if they needed to complain they would find out information about the complaints procedure by asking staff or by looking at the provider’s website.