Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Park View Medical Centre on 17 June 2015

Overall the practice is rated as good. We found the practice to be good for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led services.

Our key findings were as follows:

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised.

• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed. Improvements in service delivery had been identified and action plans implemented to address this.

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered after considering best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.

• All patients requiring an emergency appointment were seen by the practice on the day.

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

• The practice’s ethos and culture respected each patient as a person with different values. The reception area was open allowing for open communication between reception staff and patients and all clinical staff walked personally to the waiting room to invite the patient into their consultation.

• The practice reviewed feedback from patients and agreed changes to the way it delivered services.

• The practice had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority. High standards were promoted and owned by all practice staff with evidence of supportive team working across all roles.

We also saw areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice worked closely, on a weekly basis with the substance misuse team to provide general medical and health care and treatment to patients. In addition, it also signposted patients to a range of support services to enable them to better manage their personal health problems.

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

Importantly the provider should:

• Ensure that clinical audits undertaken are repeated to demonstrate effectiveness of actions taken by the practice as a result of the initial audit.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice