Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Linden Medical Group on 6 July 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings across all of 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 and reviewed and the results shared with staff including lessons learned.

• Safe arrangements were in place for staff recruitment that protected patients from risks of harm. Staff numbers were regularly reviewed to enable them to meet patients’ needs and plans were in place to increase clinical sessions.

• There were robust on-going arrangements in place to protect patients and others from unnecessary infections.

• 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 had been encouraged and planned.

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

• Information about how to make a complaint was readily available and easy to understand. Complaints received were dealt with appropriately and clear explanations given to complainants.

• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to assess and treat patients.

• There was a clear leadership structure and staff told us they felt well supported by senior staff. Management sought feedback from patients which it acted on.

• The provider was aware of the requirements of the Duty of Candour and we saw where this had been applied concerning a complaint.

We saw an area of outstanding practice:

• The practice was pro-active in identifying patients who were carers and had registered 3% of the practice population as carers. An additional support mechanism included a designated member of staff who maintained telephone contact with carers. The Northamptonshire Carers Association had given the practice two awards for the work they carried out for carers. Staff had commenced work in identifying young carers aged between five and 17 years. The carers pack included support services that were available for young carers including social activities. The practice website included a wealth of information about carers.

However, there was an area of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

The provider should;

• Continue working towards ensuring correct coding is applied for patients with long-term conditions.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We spoke with patients at the practice and they told us that they found the practice to be excellent. One person told us that they had been a practice member for a long time and if they were not happy with it then they would not keep coming back. Another patient told us that they had been at the practice since infancy and had never had any problems.

We spoke with patients about booking an appointment and they told us that they felt there were no problems. One patient told us that they have never had a problem booking an appointment at the time they wanted although they have never had to ask for an emergency appointment. We also found that another patient had booked an emergency appointment recently and received one the same day.