Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Northgate Medical Practice on 24 May 2016. 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 an effective system for reporting and recording significant events.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had the experience and had been trained to provide them with the skills and knowledge to deliver effective care and treatment.
• 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 easy to understand. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and there was continuity of care, with urgent treatment available the same day.
• 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 and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

We saw two areas of outstanding practice:

The practice had a team of health trainers who had focussed on providing healthy living guidance to patients mostly living in areas of greater deprivation.

The practice vision included environmental sustainability and the practice had received an NHS silver gilt award for their work in this field.

We saw one area where the provider should make improvements:

The practice should consider recording medication error near misses as reviewing these helps to reduce the risk of errors in the future.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We reviewed the information available to us about Northgate Medical Practice on 11 June 2019. We did not find evidence of significant changes to the quality of service being provided since the last inspection. As a result, we decided not to inspect the surgery at this time. We will continue to monitor this information about this service throughout the year and may inspect the surgery when we see evidence of potential changes.