Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr PC Patel and Partner on 4 May 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• Staff had confidence in reporting, recording, investigating and responding to significant events.
• Staff had received appropriate safeguarding training to undertake their roles and responsibilities.
• The practice was visibly clean and tidy and they had an appointed infection prevention control lead. Staff had received appropriate training and cleaning schedules were maintained.
• Appropriate recruitment checks had been undertaken for staff prior to employment.
• There were adequate arrangements in place to respond to emergencies and major incidents. Emergency medicines and equipment were available and continuity plans in place to minimise disruption to the service.
• The practice used the information collected for the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) and performance against national screening programmes to monitor outcomes for patients. The practice achieved 92% of the points available and was not an outlier for any clinical data. Clinical audits had been conducted and demonstrated quality improvement.
• Staff had undertaken a comprehensive induction and assessments during their probationary period and received appropriate training and supervision
• Patients and staff told us of the compassion shown by the clinical team and how the practice manager had comforted patients visibly distressed.
• The practice management were passionate about the practice and their plans to provide a more responsive service with the extensive planned development of their premises.
• The partners were visible within the practice and actively involved in all aspects of service delivery with partners leading on clinical care and administration. They actively sought feedback from staff and patients, listened to it and considered it within the development of the practice.

However there were areas of practice where the provider should make improvements;

• Improve the timely and comprehensive documenting of significant incidents, including reviewing the actions implemented as a result of areas of improvement having been identified through analysis.
• Identify and follow up on children who fail to attend hospital appointments to check there are no safeguarding concerns.
• Discuss changes to national guidelines during their clinical meetings.
• Record all complaints to enable the identification of themes and trends.
• Improve the identification of carers and provide them with appropriate support.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice