This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous rating July 2016 – Good)

The key questions at this inspection are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Sandown Health Centre on 13 September 2018. This inspection was carried out as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

•The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.

•The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.

•Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

•Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.

•There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

•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.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a desk top review of Sandown Health Centre on 4 July 2016 to check that action had been taken since our previous inspection in March 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

At our inspection in March 2015 we rated the practice as good overall. The practice was good for Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well Led services.

However we found that the practice required improvement in the Safe domain due to breaches of regulations relating to safe delivery of services. We found that the registered person did not ensure that effective systems were in place to assess the risk of, and prevent, detect and control the spread of infections. An action plan was required following an infection control audit and an annual infection control statement had not been written.

The practice had a policy for the management, testing and investigation of Legionella (a bacterium that can grow in contaminated water and can be potentially fatal). 

We have not revisited Sandown Health Centre as part of this review because they were able to demonstrate that they were meeting the standards without the need for a visit.

We undertook this focused desk top review on 4 July 2016 to check that they had followed their plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to those requirements. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Sandown Health Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Our key findings for this review were as follows:

The provider had made improvements to:

• There have been action plans produced following infection control audits.

The practice is now rated Good for Safe services.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Sandown Health Centre on 25 March 2015.

Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be outstanding for providing responsive services and good for providing caring, well-led and effective services for older people, people with long term conditions, families, children and young people, working age people, people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable and people experiencing poor mental health. It required improvement for providing safe services.

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 managed, with the exception of some aspects infection control;
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment;
• A recent survey showed 95% of patients said they had confidence and trust in the GP treating them;
• 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; and
• 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 including:

• The practice had a proactive patient participation group (PPG). We met with two members of the PPG who were extremely positive about the practice and told us they felt welcomed and involved in the development of the practice;
• GPs supported an alcohol rehabilitation unit, a mental health recovery unit, temporary housing for vulnerable families and other vulnerable groups. Homeless patients who were registered at the practice, were able to use the practice address for correspondence; and
• Patients had access to fact sheets from the practice and on the practice website. These had been written to explain the role of the NHS to newly-arrived individuals seeking asylum. The fact sheets were available in a choice of 20 different languages which included; Polish Albanian, Urdu, Somali and Croatian.

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

Importantly the provider must:

• Produce an action plan after each infection control audit.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice