Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Kilmeny Medical Centre on 23 August 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led care for all of the population groups it serves.

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

• The ethos and culture of the practice was to provide good quality service and care to patients.

• Patients told us they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and were involved in care and decisions about their treatment.

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance.A

• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat and meet the needs of patients. Information regarding the services provided by the practice and how to make a complaint was readily available for patients.

• Patients we spoke with were positive about access to the service. They said they found it generally easy to make an appointment, there was continuity of care and urgent appointments were available on the same day as requested.

• The practice of, and complied with, the requirements of the duty of candour. (The duty of candour is a set of specific legal requirements that providers of services must follow when things go wrong with care and treatment.)

• The partners a culture of openness and honesty which was reflected in their approach to safety.

• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.

• There were comprehensive safeguarding systems in place; particularly around vulnerable children and adults.

• The practice sought patient views how improvements could be made to the service, through the use of patient surveys, the NHS Friends and Family Test and the Patient Participation Group (PPG).

• There was a clear leadership structure.

• The GP partners were forward thinking, aware of future challenges to the practice and were open to innovative practice.

We saw an area of outstanding practice:

• The practice was one of three practices who pioneered a wellbeing project. The practice identified 10 patients as being in need of additional support to manage their illnesses and referred to the multidisciplinary project team led by a consultant clinical psychologist and linked to an academic institute. The project evaluated extremely well and had been shared across Yorkshire and Humber as a good example of a new model of care. As a result of the wellbeing project the practice identified that chronic pain was an issue not well understood or managed by most health professionals. The practice had started a support group for patients living with chronic pain and has developed an education process for patients and other clinicians in the best practice model of managing chronic pain. As a result the practice could evidence a number of patients who had reduced or stopped long term use of painkillers and empowered them to manage and accept their condition successfully. Patients told us how empowered they had become as a result of support from the practice.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

The practice had two surgeries, Kilmeny and Long Lee. The practice manager explained the surgery at Long Lee was a satellite of the Kilmeny practice and staff worked at both of the surgeries. At this inspection we visited the Kilmeny surgery.

We talked with a representative from the patient participation group who told us the practice had an active group of people who met regularly with the practice manager and the doctors. They told us where they had raised concerns these had been listened to and acted upon by the practice.

People who used the service were protected against the risk of abuse. Staff had received training in abuse awareness and protecting children and vulnerable adults. Policies and procedures were available to all staff in relation to safeguarding.

We also found the practice had followed their recruitment process and had carried out all the appropriate checks before staff had started work.

We looked at the premises and found the practice had systems in place which were designed to assess the risk of and prevent and control the spread of health care associated infections.