Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Northville Family Practice on 2 February 2017.

Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.

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

• 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; further attention was needed to ensure all vulnerable patients records were coded correctly. However, we found the practice was proactive with identifying risks to patients and had reviewed the notes of all female patients aged over 65 who had not had contact with the surgery in the last year and planned to do the same for the comparable males. The register was reviewed quarterly at multidisciplinary practice meetings and patients who had no contact with the practice in the previous quarter were telephoned and services offered.

• 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 could make an appointment with a named GP; there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments 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.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• The practice should further develop processes and systems and embed them with the staff team, for example, medicine monitoring processes, a protocol for hospital discharge medicine changes and timely viewing of results.

• The practice should ensure that the information accessible by the public on the website is kept up to date.

• The practice should address the coding issues to ensure all vulnerable patients are identified.

• The practice should obtain an electrical installation certificate for the premises.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice