Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Parkside Surgery on 12 January 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 in place 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 skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Clinical audits were undertaken and their results had been used to drive improvements to patient outcomes.
• 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.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a GP. There was effective use of a telephone triage system to manage 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 practice had a number of policies and procedures to govern activity and staff were engaged in a process of reviewing and updating them to ensure they were applicable to activities undertaken in the practice.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Ensure there is an auditable system for monitoring the recording of serial numbers on blank hand written and electronic prescriptions pads held in storage and once allocated to the GP so that their location is easily identified.

• Ensure the system in place to monitor stocks of medicine held in the premises is fully embedded and incorporates all medicine including that stored in the GPs bags.

• Ensure all staff receive up to date infection prevention and control training and all cleaning tasks are included on relevant cleaning schedules, for example washing fabric privacy curtains.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

During our inspection we spoke with four people who had attended for appointments, three members of the Patient Participation Group (PPG), three GPs, the practice manager, a practice nurse, an advanced practitioner and three administrative staff.

People told us they were fully involved in discussions and decisions about their treatment and said they were listened to by the doctors and nurses in the surgery. Comments included, “It’s always a positive experience when you attend the surgery” and “I am happy with the service here. I’ve always had things explained to me”.

People were very satisfied with the way they were treated by staff. One person told us, “I think they’re brilliant here. The doctors and nurses are exceptionally good”.

The surgery had a policy in place in relation to safeguarding children and staff had access to national guidance regarding the safeguarding of vulnerable adults. Staff had undertaken appropriate training and were aware of the action to take should they have any concerns about people who attended the surgery.

Staff told us they enjoyed working at the surgery and felt supported by other members of the team. One person commented, “I’ve worked here for many years. It’s a lovely place to work”.

The provider had appropriate systems in place to monitor the quality of service provision. We found people's views had been taken into account in the way the service was provided.

We reviewed the information available to us about Parkside Surgery on 2 May 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.