We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Picton Medical Centre on 5 March 2019 as part of our inspection programme. Picton Medical Centre was previously inspected on 3 February 2015 and was rated as good.

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, except for the population group of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable which we rated as outstanding for providing responsive care, and therefore outstanding overall for this population group.

We found that:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care. Data taken from the NHS website showed that 100% of patients would recommend the practice to their family and friends.
• The practice planned, organised, delivered and reviewed services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• The compassionate way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, holistic, person-centre care to vulnerable patients.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

• We saw that the practice provided co-ordinated, joined up care for vulnerable patients and individuals. The practice led and participated in a number of local community and self-directed initiatives to ensure that the care given to vulnerable patients and individuals in the local community met their needs and challenges. We saw examples of caring staff going the extra mile to ensure that patients received care that exceeded their expectations. Staff were involved with a number of charities, the distribution of food bank vouchers, homeless initiatives and volunteered at a local food kitchen.

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

• Review and improve the process of responding to safety alerts to assure themselves all alerts had been managed and responded to.
• Continue to improve and encourage the uptake of screening by patients registered with the practice, including cervical, breast and bowel cancer screening.

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 Picton Medical Centre on 3 February 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led services. It was also good for providing services for the older people, people with long-term conditions, working age people, families, children and young people, vulnerable people and people experiencing poor mental health.

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 was available and easy to understand.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP with urgent appointments available the same day.
• 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:

• Patients experiencing long term mental health problems were given additional support to refer themselves to the local Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service, including arrangements to meet with IAPT staff within the practice premises.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice