Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Ridings Medical Group on 7 December 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.
• 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.
• 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 some areas of outstanding practice including:

• The practice had set up a ‘patient booth’. The patient booth was an additional service for patients to obtain advice and support and was run by in-house patient champions on a voluntary basis.

• The practice ran an Advanced Training Practice (ATP) hub was instrumental in supporting pre- registration student nurses to have clinical placement experience, to encourage them to consider practice nursing at the point of qualification.

• The practice employed a full time community nurse who was responsible for providing chronic disease reviews and vaccinations to housebound and care home patients.
• The PPG managed monetary funds called the ‘PPG Nursing Fund’ which were predominantly donations from patents and book sales in the practice. The funds from these donations had allowed the practice to purchase children’s activity tables and items of clinical equipment.

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

• Put systems and arrangements in place to ensure uncollected scripts are managed in a timely manner.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice