Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Surgery Rugby Road on 19 August 2015. 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, appropriately reviewed and addressed. Lessons learned were regularly discussed at team meetings.

• 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.

• 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.

• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and that there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day. Patient reviews were routinely carried out and some of the patients lived in care homes in the local area.

• 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.

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

Importantly the provider should:

• Ensure that an accurate record is kept of meetings relating to significant events and complaints to facilitate the sharing of learning and analysis of patterns and trends

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice