Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Lakeside Medical Practice on 8 September 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Please note that when referring to information throughout this report, for example any reference to the Quality and Outcomes Framework data, this relates to the most recent information available to the CQC at that time.

Our key findings were as follows:

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents. Information about safety was recorded and monitored with actions taken to make improvements when required;

• Risk assessments were completed and kept under review;

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care and treatment was planned and delivered following best practice and local guidance;

• Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and further training needs were identified and planned;

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

• Patients said staff were caring, efficient, professional, friendly and helpful;

• Information about the services provided and how to make a complaint were displayed for patients at the practice, provided in the patient information leaflet and on the practice website;

• Patients who spoke with us reported mixed experiences of getting appointments;

• The practice provided appointments outside of work and school hours and urgent appointments were provided on the same day;

• The practice was equipped to treat patients and meet their needs, although the reception and waiting area were not big enough and did not have enough seating for the number of patients;

• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by their managers;

• The practice sought feedback from patients and staff and acted upon it.

We saw some areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice address was used for homeless people to receive mail. All staff at the practice provided these patients with clothing, food and drink and to use the phone or charge their mobile phones when they attended.

• The practice used a regular interpreter for patients from one local community, to provide continuity, ensuring appointments were translated to the patients’ first language so they were involved in and understood their care and treatment options.

• The practice had developed a Patient Liaison Officer role. This person was a regular link between the practice and other health and social care providers for older patients, those with long term conditions and vulnerable patients. This person had weekly contact with vulnerable patients.

• The practice had identified patients attending for non-medical advice and support. They approached a local trust to work in partnership with them to arrange for trained volunteers to attend the practice on a daily basis to signpost patients to local services for assistance with housing, finance, benefits, immigration, furniture recycling, food bank, well-being services and coffee mornings. Reception staff were included in the training for this work so they could provide the service when volunteers were not at the practice.

However there were areas where the provider should make improvements.

Importantly, the provider should:

• Consider replacing fabric chairs and carpets in waiting room.

• Review the responses to the national GP survey and look at ways to improve patient experience of making appointments and getting through to the practice on the telephone.

• Continue to improve the number of patients with learning disabilities who have an annual review.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Lakeside Medical Practice on 16 January 2019 as part of our inspection programme. We previously carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Lakeside Medical Practice on 8 September 2015.

Overall the practice was rated as good. It was rated as outstanding for providing caring services. The relevant reports can be downloaded from

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

• what we found when we inspected
• information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
• information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We have rated this practice as outstanding overall.

We found that:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.

The practice should continue to monitor and take action to improve the immunisation rates for children aged two.

We rated the practice as outstanding for providing caring services because:

• Feedback from patients was consistently positive.
• There was a strong person-centred culture.

We rated the practice as outstanding for providing responsive services because:

• Services were tailored to meet the needs of individual patients. They were delivered in a flexible way that ensured choice and continuity of care.
• There were innovative approaches to providing integrated person-centred care.
• The practice had identified areas where there were gaps in provision locally and had taken steps to address them.

We rated the practice as outstanding for providing well-led services because:

• The culture of the practice and the way it was led and managed drove the delivery and improvement of high-quality, person-centred care.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

• The practice had a partnership with a local charity and a housing association, called Positive Steps Thamesmead. This provided a very wide range of social prescribing. It provided support to patients and non-patients alike in areas such as housing immigration and debt.
• Reception staff at the practice provided drinks and snacks for homeless patients and invited these people to sit inside, away from extreme weather. They were able, for example, to charge their mobile telephones at the practice.
• There was a Patient Liaison Officer who was in regular contact with patients who were deemed to be particularly vulnerable.
• The practice used technology innovatively, there was a tablet computer in reception so patients contact their GP or access other electronic practice services. The practice had obtained tablet computers for two homes for elderly patients to improve communication.
• The practice had set up a sexual health clinic in direct response to the lack of such provision in the area. It was open to patients and non-patients alike.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice