Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Scott Road Medical Centre on 18 August 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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 and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• Patients said they found it relatively easy to make an appointment with a named GP and that there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available on the same day.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• 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 some areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice, as part of SHIELD (The Selby Area Federation of GP Practices), had won an innovation fund to develop social prescribing. This fund was used initially to support the local voluntary service to produce an up to date data base of available voluntary social care organisations. Patients were now referred to the most appropriate services. This service is in its infancy. There was only anecdotal evidence that it was having a positive impact on patients and /or their carers
• The named GP had assessed patients with a geriatrician at the local care and nursing homes to assess and meet the needs of their patients. This also prevented long journeys to hospitals for these patients who were mainly frail and elderly. In conjunction with the community matron, they had implemented anticipatory care plans with admission avoidance planning incorporated.
• The practice had a Same Day Care (SDC) service for patients who felt their needs were urgent. The receptionist took a phone number and a brief outline of their symptoms. The patients were telephoned back within the hour by a clinician and were triaged (assessed); and if necessary they were given an appointment with either the GP or nurse or with the GP they usually see.
• Patients who had Long Term Conditions had appointments in the One Stop Review Clinic. These extended appointments provided allocated time with the nurse prior to seeing the GP. This optimised treatment plans and enabled multiple conditions to be reviewed in one visit.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice