Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of Vale of the Red Horse Health Care Centres on 22 November 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• People were protected by a strong, comprehensive safety system and a focus on openness, transparency and learning when things went wrong. Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. Opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised.

• Risks to patients were comprehensively assessed and well managed.

• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff were sufficiently trained and had the appropriate knowledge and experience to effectively deliver care and treatment.

• Patient outcomes were in line with or above local and national averages.

• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and that they were suitably involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.

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

• 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 areas of outstanding practice including:

• The practice had identified five previously unknown carers aged under 18 years following an event at a local school and had placed these on the carers’ register. This enabled these young carers to access additional support and guidance from the practice, including signposting to local support services. Practice staff had engaged with and sought feedback from this group in respect of provision for carers, and had used the feedback to make improvements. This included designing specific correspondence for young carers.

• The practice had recognised they had higher than average numbers of teenage patients and provided additional services for this group, including weekly young persons' clinics specifically for those aged 16 to 19 years. The practice had engaged with a local school to visit and discuss aspects of health care, for example sexual health. This included question and answer sessions with groups of students.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice