Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a comprehensive inspection of The Norwich Road Surgery in January 2016. The practice was rated as good overall, but rated as requires improvement for providing safe services. As a result of the findings on the day of our initial inspection the practice was issued with requirement notice for regulation 12 (safe care and treatment).

Specifically we identified the areas the provider must make improvements were;

• Infection control audits must be undertaken and any requirements implemented.

• Cold chain management of medicines must be implemented and monitored effectively.

We also identified that the areas where the provider should make improvements were:

• Implement a robust risk assessment system, including premises related risks.

• Ensure staff are supported with timely appraisals.

• Ensure all consumable equipment is in date and fit for use.

• Ensure mandatory staff training is up to date for all members of staff.

The practice sent us an action plan that outlined the steps they were taking to improve and we then carried out a focused inspection of The Norwich Road Surgery on 31 May 2016.

We undertook this inspection to check that they had followed their action plan to address the shortfalls and to confirm that they now met legal requirements.

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

• Improvements had been made that addressed the findings of our inspection on 26 January 2016.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Norwich Road Surgery on 26 January 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. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, and addressed.
• 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.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Improvements were needed for auditing of infection prevention and control measures and for cold chain management of medicines.
• 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.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

• The practice had recognised the need to be supportive in providing care to ethnic minority patients with 11% of its population not having English as their first language. For example by proactively inviting non-English speakers to join the patient participation group and by requesting patients that they submit information to the practice about their (children’s) immunisations so that medical records could be updated and additional vaccinations could be provided if required.

The areas where the provider must make improvement are:

• Infection control audits must be undertaken and any required improvements implemented.
• Cold chain management of medicines must be implemented and monitored effectively.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Implement a robust risk assessment system, including premises related risks.
• Ensure staff are supported with timely appraisals.
• Ensure all consumable equipment is in date and fit for use.
• Ensure mandatory staff training is up to date for all members of staff.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice