Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 14 July 2015 at South Milford Surgery as part of our comprehensive programme of inspection of primary medical services. We also visited their two branch surgeries in Micklefield and Thorpe Willoughby.

Overall the practice is rated as GOOD.

Specifically, we found the practice provided safe, well-led, effective, caring and responsive services. It was rated as good for all of the population groups.

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.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• The practice was clean and hygienic

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

• 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 then referred to the most appropriate services.
• The practice provided minor injuries clinics to avoid unnecessary journeys to the nearest hospital. Information showed there were fewer A & E attendances, compared with other GP practices within the CCG.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We reviewed the information available to us about South Milford Surgery on 25 May 2019. We did not find evidence of significant changes to the quality of service being provided since the last inspection. As a result, we decided not to inspect the surgery at this time. We will continue to monitor this information about this service throughout the year and may inspect the surgery when we see evidence of potential changes.