Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Wand Medical Centre on 25 October 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 report incidents and near misses.

• 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.

• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed. Following the inspection we received evidence that fire drills and fire risk assessments had been completed in line with Fire Safety Regulations.

• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. The majority of feedback from patients about their care was positive.

• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the Duty of Candour.

• The practice worked closely with other organisations and with the local community in planning how services were provided to ensure they meet people’s needs.

• 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.

• The practice implemented suggestions for improvements and made changes to the way it delivered services as a consequence of feedback from patients and from the patient participation group.

• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.

• The practice had a clear vision, which had quality and safety as its top priority.

• The practice had strong and visible clinical and managerial leadership and governance arrangements.

• The practice implemented a written record to show how the practice implements and shares National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance and the alerts received from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) following the inspection.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice