Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Pickering Medical Practice on 30 September 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.
• 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.
• 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 named GP and that 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.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice was working with Dementia Forward to facilitate support for patients and their carers. In addition they had developed a dementia study module for medical students, which had specific project work to improve local services.
• We saw good relationships had been developed with the local secondary school and a system was in place to assure confidentiality. The practice had recently opened a weekly sexual health hub in conjunction with the local GUMed ( Genito-Urinary Medicine) Service. There was a separate waiting area for teenagers to use when required.
• The 12 practice federation although in its infancy was already providing benefits for staff and patients. The federation had agreed that all practice roles would have a minimum requirement of training to improve consistency and to eventually help each other by sharing staff when required. They would know what was expected from them wherever they worked within these 12 practices.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice