Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Hoyland First PMS Practice, also known as Walderslade Surgery on 16 December 2014. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing well-led, effective, caring and responsive services. It was also good for providing services to the six population groups we inspect.

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, with the exception of those relating to recruitment checks.
• 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 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.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice had commissioned the Pharmacy First Scheme for minor ailments to ease patient access to appointments. This service is available to all patients; those who pay for prescriptions are charged for the medications, normally cheaper than prescriptions. Patients who do not pay for their prescriptions do not pay for these medications.

• The practice used computerised tools such as the ‘Electronic Checking Leading to Improved Safety and Efficiency'  (ECLIPSE) to identify patients with complex needs who had multidisciplinary care plans documented in their case notes. We saw the personalised plans and records, which showed areas of identified risk and how these risks were reviewed.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice