Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We inspected this service on 2 October 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 safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led domains. We found the practice provided good care to older people, people with long term conditions, families, children and young people, working age people, people in vulnerable groups and people experiencing poor mental health.

Our key findings were:

• Patients were protected from the risk of abuse and avoidable harm. There were robust systems in place for safeguarding adults and children. Performance was consistent over time and there were effective arrangements in place for reporting safety incidents and learning from key safety risks.
• Patients received care and treatment which achieved good outcomes, promoted a good quality of life and was based on the best available evidence
• Staff were caring and treated patients with dignity and respect. Patients told us that staff were compassionate and kind. They said that GPs were good at listening to them and involving them in decisions about their care and treatment
• Services were organised to meet the diverse needs of the patients. The practice was aware that improvements were needed to the appointments system for non urgent appointments and was regularly monitoring how it worked. There was evidence that new initiatives were being trialled to address this
• The leadership, management and governance supported learning and innovation and promoted an open and fair culture. We saw that processes in place provided assurance that high quality care was being delivered

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

The provider should:

• Develop staff knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 in relation to their roles
• Develop ways to improve support for bereaved patients

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice