Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Knights Surgery on 18 November 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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 managed with the exception of training for non clinical staff in infection prevention control and emergency life support.
• 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 staff were receptive to feedback and committed to resolving issues.
• 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.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff, patients and their patient participation group, which it acted on.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

• The practice identified behavioural trends in patients suffering with poor mental health during periods of anxiety such as presenting at multiple accident and emergency departments during the same day. The practice were proactive at addressing this with the patient and in partnership with other health and social care services. They developed personalised care plans to assist the patients to manage their anxiety. For some they offered daily appointments at a time convenient for the patient and priority access to a GP over the phone. Thereby providing an accessible and caring response to a patients individual needs. This reduced their patients dependency on other health services and their attendance at accident and emergency departments. Once reassured by the accessibility of medical services the patients gradually reduced their need to attend daily appointments.

However there were areas of practice where the provider should make improvements.

• Implement fire safety procedures in the absence of a mains connected fire alarm system.
• Ensure emergency medicines are securely stored.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice