Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Gables Medical Group on 17 February 2016. 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.
• Risks to patients were assessed and generally well managed.
• The practice carried out clinical audit activity and were able to demonstrate improvements to patient care as a result of this.
• The majority of patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect.
• Urgent appointments were usually available on the day they were requested. The practice had introduced a daily open surgery as a result of increased demand for appointments and were continually monitoring its effectiveness.
• The practice had a number of policies and procedures to govern activity, which were reviewed and updated regularly.
• The practice had proactively sought feedback from patients and had a ‘virtual’ patient participation group.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• The practice had effective systems in place to support patients with long term conditions and were proactive in their treatment of patients with diabetes.

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

Importantly, the provider should:

• Carry out a risk assessment detailing why it is not felt to be appropriate or necessary to have a defibrillator or oxygen at the branch surgery
• Purchase spillage kits and ensure staff are aware of their location and how to deal with spillages of body fluids
• Consider having a formal written business plan
• Consider developing an ‘actual’ as well as ‘virtual’ patient participation group

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

People expressed their views and were involved in making decisions about their care and treatment. We saw that staff dealt with enquiries from patients as discretely as possible. One person told us, “They make you feel as if you are the only patient they have.”

The practice had in place safeguarding policies for both children and vulnerable adults. There was an identified lead clinician with clear roles and responsibilities to oversee safeguarding within the practice.

The practice was well organised and presented as clean, tidy and generally well maintained. There were effective systems in place to reduce the risk and spread of infection.

The provider had a recruitment policy in place. General practitioners and nurses employed within the practice were checked to ensure they had an up to date registration with the appropriate professional body.

The practice had in place a complaints policy and responded to complaints in an appropriate and timely manner.