Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Mayfield Medical Centre

on 17 May 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 decisions about their care and 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 found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and there was continuity of care, 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 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.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• While the practice had safety records, incident reports and patient safety alerts it was not clear how the lessons from such incidents were shared in order to improve the safety in the practice.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice had a ‘Virtual Surgery’ where patients can visit the electronic GPs and get advice on a range of the most common ailments.

• The practice offered clinics who suffered chronic pain. A GP was involved in the British Pain Society paper on ‘Language specific and culturally adapted pain management programme’. This enabled a better understanding of a patients culture specific social relationships on how to advise GPs on how to communicate pain experiences. The paper was published in December 2015. This has helped patients move from dependence on pain medication and self-management.

• The practice worked with Bradford District Care Trust to support women who had mental health problems. It was the only practice that offered support to women from outside of Bradford.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We spoke with 10 people that used the service. They were of varying ages from young adults to the elderly. The general opinion on the practice was that it was good or very good.

Patients told us they were treated with care and respect and we saw positive exchanges between patients and staff. One person said, “I’ve been coming for 12 years”.

None of the patients had any significant concerns regarding safeguarding or fitness to practice.

Some of the patients had been registered for many years (as long as 40 years), and despite an alternative surgery in very close proximity they had no desire to move.

None of the patients had ever submitted a complaint or knew of any family or friends who had made a complaint.