We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Springfield Medical Practice on 5 February 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

• what we found when we inspected
• information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
• information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We have rated this practice as Good overall.

We rated the practice as Requires Improvement for providing effective services because:

• The practice was unable to demonstrate that they had proactively taken action to address lower than local and national average cancer screening rates.
• The practice demonstrated that it had taken action to address lower than average childhood immunisation and cancer screening rates. Unverified data provided by the practice indicated that cervical screening had improved but they were unable to demonstrate that other cancer screening rates or immunisations had improved.

We rated the practice as Good for providing safe, caring, responsive and well-led services because:

• Systems in place to safeguard patients were well established. The practice demonstrated that they had identified risks and had generally taken action to mitigate these.
• Patient satisfaction relating to involvement in care and treatment was higher than local and national averages.
• The practice demonstrated that they had taken action to address lower than local and national average patient satisfaction scores relating to access to care and treatment. Unverified data provided by the practice indicated that some satisfaction scores had increased.
• The practice demonstrated that they had reacted and taken action in a timely fashion to complaints and significant events.

Although we found no breaches, the areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Consider how risks within the practice are mitigated whilst actions identified are ongoing.
• Ensure that documentation relating to safety checks of emergency equipment are completed.
• Review processes for identifying and supporting carers to ensure that these are proactive.
• Continue to review systems and processes to ensure appointments run on time to reduce waiting times for patients.
• Review and monitor systems for communication to ensure that they are operating as intended.
• Continue to review proactive ways of encouraging patients to attend cancer screening and childhood immunisations.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Springfield Medical Practice on 8 December 2015. The overall rating for this service is good.

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

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. Learning from incidents was shared with relevant staff at meetings relevant to their roles and responsibilities.

• Information about how to complain was easy to understand an available in practice leaflets and on the practice website.

• Information was provided to help patients understand the care available to them. Patients told us they were treated kindly and respectfully by staff at the practice. Their treatment options were explained to them so they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.

• The practice implemented suggestions for improvements and made changes to the way it delivered services as a consequence of feedback from patients and from the Patient Participation Group (PPG).

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff told us and records showed that training appropriate to their roles had been carried out. Staff training needs had been identified and planned for the following year.

• 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.

However there are areas where improvements are needed.

The areas the provider should make improvements are:

• Ensure that recruitment procedures are followed and applied consistently for all staff.
• Suitable arrangements should be established to ensure that all processes are maintained when absences occur such as sickness or annual leave. 

• Establish an agenda to ensure that significant events, complaints are routinely discussed or reviewed in meetings to provide an audit trail that demonstrates the learning and sharing of information.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice