Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Hughenden Valley Surgery on 23 March 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.
• However, the cold chain policy relating to medicines requiring refrigeration was not thorough, and a recent incident of a fridge recording a temperature above the safe maximum had not been dealt with effectively.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had 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.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and that 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.
• Forty three staff members had completed training to become Alzheimer’s Society Dementia Friends, and the dementia support packs provided to patients with dementia had been adopted by the CCG for use in other practices. The practice had been registered as a Safe Place for vulnerable people by the county council.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

The practice had been closely involved in designing a Cancer Research UK leaflet to support patients referred to oncology services, which has since been rolled out nationally. It had also appointed a Vulnerable Adults Living Independently Advanced Nursing Team (VALIANT) nurse to provide welfare support in the community.

The areas where the provider must make improvement are:

• Ensure that the cold chain policy is reviewed to include the safe temperature range, and to ensure that staff are trained to follow this policy and respond effectively if the temperature of a fridge used to store medicine or vaccines is recorded outside the safe range.

In addition the provider should:

• Ensure that bank staff have full induction training and access to practice policies.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We reviewed the information available to us about Hughenden Valley Surgery 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.