Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Rock Healthcare on 14 May 2015. Overall the practice is rated as outstanding.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, effective and caring services. We found it to be outstanding for being responsive and well led. It was also outstanding for providing services for all the population groups that we assess.

Our key findings 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.
• The practice used innovative and proactive methods to improve patient outcomes, working with other local providers to share best practice.
• 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 usually found it easy to make an appointment with a GP and that there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
• The practice had very good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• The practice had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority. A business plan was in place, was monitored and regularly reviewed and discussed with all staff. High standards were promoted and owned by all practice staff with evidence of team working across all roles.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• The practice should introduce a documented “cold chain” policy to ensure the safety of temperature sensitive medication.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

• The practice had increased the flexibility of access to appointments and use of co-located services and could demonstrate the impact of this by reduced use of the out of hours service and very positive patient survey results. The practice provided appointments between 8am and 8pm 365 days a year.
• The practice had a very good skill mix which included advanced nurse practitioners (ANPs) and was able to see a broader range of patients than practice nurses.
• The practice had continually reached out to the local community by approaching local bail hostels and centres for the treatment of addiction and ensured anyone attending the practice would be seen by a clinician even if they were not a registered patient.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice