Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Plympton Medical Centre, which is part of the Beacon Medical Group on Thursday 26 March 2015. There are four practices within the Beacon Medical Group. We only inspected Plympton Health Centre during this inspection.

Overall the practice is rated as good. Specifically, the five domains of safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led are rated as providing services that are good. It was also rated good for providing services for the six population groups.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

There was a track record and a culture of promptly responding to incidents, near misses and complaints and using these events to learn and change systems so that patient care could be improved.

Staff were aware of their responsibilities in regard to consent, safeguarding and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA).

The practice was clean and tidy and there were infection control procedures in place.

Medicines were managed well and there were effective systems in place to deal with emergencies.

The GPs and other clinical staff were knowledgeable about how the decisions they made improved clinical outcomes for patients and care plans were not always kept under review.

Most data outcomes for patients were either equal to or above the average locally.

Patients were generally complimentary about the staff and how their medical conditions were managed, although patients told us that changes at the practice were taking time to get used to.

Practice staff were professional and respectful when providing care and treatment.

The practice planned its services to meet the diversity of its patients. Adjustments were made to meet the needs of the patients. Changes were in progress to improve the appointment system to ensure good access to the service.

There were clear recruitment processes in place and robust induction processes in place.

The practice had a vision, clear ethos and mission statement which were understood by staff. There was an emerging leadership structure in place and staff felt supported.

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

The Provider should:

• Develop an annual clinical audit policy.
• Ensure staff meeting minutes show when items for action have been completed.
• Ensure there are records showing when learning actions following significant events analysis have been completed.
• Develop an effective system to monitor staff training.
• Coordinate IT system records to inform and prioritise indicators for child safeguarding concerns.
• Ensure that an evaluation of new clinical services takes place at the end of pilot programmes.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of changes intended to improve telephone access for patients.
• Publicise patient survey results.
• Ensure all staff are aware where emergency equipment is stored in the practice.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice