Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Village Surgery on 19 October 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, although a policy and procedure was not available.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• 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 were enthusiastic in their praise of the practice. They 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 usually found it easy to get through to the practice on the telephone and could get an appointment with a named GP. The GPs provided a telephone appointment service which patients said they liked.
• The GPs provided a telephone triage service for urgent appointments and responded to patients’ telephone messages in line with recently implemented criteria.
• 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 practice had awareness of where it wanted to improve its services and had plans to develop them to meet future challenges.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Develop a procedure for the reporting and responding to significant events to support the activity already in place .
• Develop a policy and protocol for responding to medical emergencies to support the staff’s knowledge already in place.
• Provide the practice team with clinical protocols to support their roles and responsibilities.
• Continue to actively promote, develop and facilitate a patient participation group to provide feedback about the service provided by the practice.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice