Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We inspected Walkden  Medical Centre on the 15 October 2014 as part of our new comprehensive inspection programme. This was the practice’s first inspection by CQC under its new methodology.  The practice was inspected under our previous methodology in September 2013 and was found to be fully compliant.

Our inspection team was led by a CQC Inspector and included a GP specialist advisor, a practice manager specialist advisor and a second CQC Inspector.  We have rated the practice as good.

Comments we received from patients were positive about the care and treatment they had received. Patients told us they are treated with dignity and respect and involved in making decisions about their treatment options.

Our key findings were as follows:

•   The practice was, safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.

          Patients told us they were treated with dignity and respect and they were involved in care and  treatment decisions.

•             Staff understand their responsibilities to raise concerns, and report incidents.

•             The practice is clean and well maintained.

•             There are a range of qualified staff to meet patients’ needs and keep them safe.

•             Data showed us patient outcomes were at or above average for the locality. People’s needs are assessed and care is planned and delivered in line with current legislation.

•             The practice works with other health and social care providers to achieve the best outcomes for patients

• The provider should  ensure that all staff receive supervision and an annual appraisal..
• The provider should  develop ways of gathering patient feedback on their performance.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

During our announced inspection we spoke with the practice manager, the reception staff and administration staff. We also spoke with two patients arriving at the practice. They told us, “The doctors are very good and appointments are always available”.

We found the environment was modern, bright and clean. We saw all telephone appointments were dealt with by staff away from the main reception area to maintain patient confidentiality. We saw there were sufficient surgeries and separate rooms for consultations to be undertaken in private.

We observed patients arriving at the reception desk were greeted in a polite, respectful and friendly manner.

During our visit we saw the practice had all the relevant policies, procedures and guidance in place for staff to access if required.

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Walkden Medical Practice as part of our inspection programme. The practice was previously inspected on 15 October 2014 and was rated as outstanding in effective, and good in all other key questions.

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

• What we found when we inspected
• Information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
• Information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We have rated this practice as requires improvement in safe and good in all other key questions, and good for all population groups.

We rated the practice as requires improvement for providing safe services because:

• The practice did not always have clear systems and processes to keep patients safe. This included taking appropriate action on patient safety alerts and ensuring recruitment checks were documented when employing new staff members. The practice informed us after the inspection that they would ensure checks were carried out.
• The practice did not always have oversight of what training locum clinicians had completed. The practice told us after the inspection that they would ensure training was checked.

The areas where the provider must make improvements are:

• Ensure that care and treatment is provided in a safe way.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• The practice should dispose of out of date consumables.
• The practice should consider documenting and formalising appraisals.
• GPs should attend regular vaccine and immunisation update training.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Rosey BenneyworthChief Inspector of General Practice