We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Park Leys Medical Practice on 5 March 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

At the last inspection in July 2015 we rated the practice as good overall.

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

• what we found when we inspected
• information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
• information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We have rated this practice as good overall and good for all population groups.

We found that:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• The practice operated a telephone triage system which enabled all patient to speak with or see a GP on the day they required treatment or advice.
• Results from the National GP patient survey results were higher than average for patients experience for access to the practice.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care and contributed to the strong teamwork and high staff morale.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Continue to develop a patient participation group and seek further ways to gather patient feedback.
• Ensure that appropriate emergency monitoring equipment is kept under review for all sites.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care.

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Park Leys Medical Practice on 7 July 2015 and at the dispensary in the branch surgery at Fillongley on 8 July 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings across all 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, appropriately reviewed and addressed.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed including those in relation to recruitment checks.
• Medicine management systems were overall robust; however we identified the potential risks around the safe and secure storage of medicines which we highlighted to the practice.
• 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 needs had been identified and planned.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• The practice provided a range of flexible and responsive services including a dispensary in a rural area where there was limited public transport.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• Patients described their experience of making an appointment as good 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.

We saw some areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice worked collaboratively with the medicines management team at the CCG to ensure the availability of all relevant emergency medicines for their end-of-life patients living in care homes. This had resulted in a central store of such medicines being available in the largest care home where the practice provided medical care. This project had been short-listed for a National Award at the Health Service Journal (HSJ) awards last year.
• The practice had carried out a pilot with funding from the CCG to trial the use of a specialist machine in the diagnognosis and treatment of patients with asthma. The practice found that for this group of identified patients, up to 70% had a positive change in decisions about their treatment due to the use of the specialist machine.

However there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

Importantly the provider should:

• Promote the availability of the chaperone service to enable patients to access this service, if required.
• Complete a risk assessment in relation to the safe and secure storage of medicines held at Park Leys Medical Practice and at the dispensary at Fillongley Surgery.
• Ensure guidance documents are regularly reviewed to ensure that they contain up-to-date information, for example the staff handbook and infection control policy

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice