Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr SSG Wickremesinghe’s practice (the Grantham Practice) on 31 March 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.

• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.

• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.

• 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. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.

• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and 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.

• 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.

• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

We saw three areas of outstanding practice:

• The practices patient satisfaction survey findings were significantly better than the national or local averages in several areas. Most notably patients found access to the practice to be significantly better, and both the appointments system and the helpfulness of reception staff were rated highly by patients.

• The practice had highlighted that 10% of the population were from Ghana, with a large number from Kumasi, and many patients travelled back to the country on a frequent basis. They had worked to develop a co-operative service with a doctor in Kumasi who had travelled to the practice to develop shared care for these patients. In particular, the practice had developed shared care diabetic protocols with the practice. This allowed patients continuity of care when out of the country.
• The practice had delivered a number of services for the benefit of its Portuguese population, who form 30% of the practice’s patient list.The practice had invited two Portuguese GPs from Lisbon to the surgery. With patient consent, they sat in on appointments with patients and fed back on some of the challenges they saw. The practice reported that they gave “invaluable insight in patients’ conditions that had not been picked up despite use of translators.”In partnership with the local Portuguese Community Centre the practice ran a ‘NHS’ day at the centre. This involved talks on how to access appropriate health care and focus groups. The practice reported that they had ensured that all leaflets in the practice were translated into Portuguese with the assistance of a local community group and had made the leaflets available to any other practices in the local area who wanted to use them.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP 

Chief Inspector of General Practice