Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Meridian Practice on 13 June 2017. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was delivered in line with current guidelines. Staff had the appropriate skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Some areas of the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) were below average or the locality and nationally, particularly for patients with poor mental health.
• Services were planned and delivered to meet the needs of the practice population, for example, all GP appointments lasted for 20 minutes to take into account the complex needs and language requirements of the majority of patients.
• Patients told us they were treated with dignity, respect and compassion. Patients were involved in decisions about their care and treatment.
• Urgent same day patient appointments were available when needed. All patients we spoke with and those who completed comment cards before our inspection said they were always able to obtain same day appointments.
• Information about how to complain was available and easy to understand. The practice received very few complaints from patients and reviewed complaints to ensure lessons learned were not repeated.
• Patients said GPs gave them enough time.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• There were clearly defined processes and procedures to ensure patients were safe and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events. They were fully reviewed at every staff meeting.

• The practice participated in national screening programmes for breast and bowel cancer, however averages were below those reported locally and nationally.

However there were areas of practice where the provider should make improvements:

• Continue to take appropriate action to ensure the highest possible outcomes are obtained through the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) for patients who experienced poor mental health, within the demands created by a rapidly changing patient population.

• Take appropriate action to encourage patients to take part in national screening programmes for breast and bowel cancer.

• Continue to actively identify patients who are carers.
• Continue to ensure all patients who receive disease modifying medicines (such as those for rheumatoid arthritis) have an alert placed on their patient record to ensure clinical staff were immediately aware of this.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice