Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at North Somercotes Surgery on 13 April 2017. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and a system in place for reporting and recording significant events.

• The practice had clearly defined and embedded systems to minimise risks to patient safety.

• Staff were aware of current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills and knowledge to deliver effective care and treatment.

• Information about services and how to complain was available. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.

• If families had suffered bereavement, their usual GP sent a letter to the bereaved family member/s or carer of the deceased patient and offered an appointment at a convenient time and access to bereavement services.

• The practice had signed up to the Dispensing Services Quality Scheme (DSQS), which rewarded practices for providing high quality services to patients using their dispensary.

• The practice had been awarded a ‘Lincolnshire Carer’s Quality Award’ due to the success of their carers support programme. The practice had identified 143 patients as carers (2.5% of the practice list). Written information was available to direct carers to the various avenues of support available to them. Older carers were offered timely and appropriate support.

• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.

• The provider was aware of the requirements of the duty of candour. Examples we reviewed showed the practice complied with these requirements.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Review the process for medicines incidents or ‘near misses’ to ensure learning from these near misses takes place and evidence and actions taken as a result are documented.

• Address the issues highlighted in the national GP patient survey in order to improve patient satisfaction, including in respect of satisfaction on access to appointments and use of the appointments system and also in respect of consultations with GPs and nurses.

• Review meeting structures to ensure all staff groups including dispensary staff working across both surgeries have the opportunity to attend practice meetings. In particular, to ensure all staff are involved in discussions to enable learning from significant events, complaints, incidents and near misses.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice