Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a focused desk based inspection of The Ridgeway Surgery on 20 February 2017 to check that action had been taken since our previous inspection on 24 November 2014. At the inspection in November 2014, the practice was rated as good overall but rated as requires improvement for providing safe services.

We found that the practice required improvement in this area due to areas of practice which needed to be addressed to ensure safe care and treatment. This was because the practice needed to:

• Review the practices protocol and procedures as to what constitutes a significant event and how they are recorded and effectively managed by the practice.

• Review the system for recording safeguarding information for vulnerable adults and children to

ensure that information is recorded consistently in patients’ records.

• Ensure that the recruitment policy covers clinical staff and makes reference to all of the information required.

On 20 February 2017 we reviewed the information the practice submitted to us to ensure that they had followed their action plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection of The Ridgeway Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Our key findings for this inspection were as follows:

The provider had made improvements:

• The practice had reviewed their recruitment policy to include all of the information required to be obtained as required under Regulation 19, Schedule 3 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
• They had reviewed the records for patients at risk and ensured safeguarding alerts were in entered on all records.
• The practice had ensured that all significant events were entered through the significant event system to ensure they were managed appropriately and effectively.

The practice is now rated good for providing safe services.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We inspected this service on 24 November 2014 as part of our new comprehensive inspection programme.

The overall rating for this service is good. We found the practice to be good in the effective, caring, responsive and well-led domains and required improvement in the safe domain. We found the practice provided good care to older people, people with long term conditions, families, children and young people, the working age population and those recently retired, people in vulnerable circumstances and people experiencing poor mental health.

Our key findings were as follows:

• There were systems in place to keep patients safe from the risk and spread of infection.
• Evidence we reviewed demonstrated that patients were satisfied with how they were treated and that this was with compassion, dignity and respect. It also demonstrated that the GPs were good at listening to patients and gave them enough time.
• The practice had an open culture that was effective and encouraged staff to share their views through staff meetings and significant event meetings.
• Systems and processes to address risks to patients were not implemented well enough to ensure patients were kept safe at all times. The practice had a system in place for reporting, recording and monitoring significant events over time. However, the scope of reporting needed to be widened to include other incidents.

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

The provider should:

• Review the system for recording safeguarding information for vulnerable adults and children to ensure that information is recorded consistently in patients’ records.
• Ensure that the recruitment policy covers clinical staff and makes reference to all of the information required.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

During our announced inspection we spoke with eight patients and six members of staff.

When patients received care or treatment they were asked for their consent and their wishes were listened to. One patient told us: "Yes things were explained to me and I had my questions answered". We found that when minor surgery had been carried out that the doctor had obtained written consent from the patients before the surgery had commenced.

We saw that patient’s views and experiences were taken into account in the way the service was provided and that they were treated with dignity and respect. The patients we spoke with provided positive feedback about their care. A patient said: "I feel they all responded to my medical problems in an appropriate manner". Patients received their medicines when they needed them.

Staff had received training in safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. They were aware of the appropriate agencies to refer safeguarding concerns to that ensured patients were protected from harm.

Patients were cared for in modern purpose built premises. The provider had ensured that the premises had been well maintained to ensure a safe environment for patients visits.

The provider had systems in place for monitoring the quality of service provision. There was an established system for regularly obtaining opinions from patients about the standards of the services they received. This meant that on-going improvements could be made by the practice staff.