Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Lapal Medical Practice on 15 December 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

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

• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed. Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance

• Staff were aware of their responsibilities to raise and report concerns, incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, reviewed and addressed.

• The practice had clearly defined and embedded systems, processes and practices in place to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse.

• Clinical audits were carried out to demonstrate quality improvement and to improve patient care and treatment

• Staff we spoke with said they felt valued, supported and that they felt involved in the practices plans.

• Staff worked with multidisciplinary teams to understand and meet the range and complexity of patients’ needs. We saw evidence that monthly multi-disciplinary team meetings and gold standards framework for end of life care (GSF) meetings took place.

• We observed the premises to be visibly clean and tidy. The practice had good facilities and was equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.

• The practice had very active patient participation group which influenced practice development. Whilst the PPG had only been in place for 12 months, we found that they had been involved in a number of successful events and projects at the practice.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice