Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Water Meadow Surgery on 12 May 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. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised. 

• The practice used innovative and proactive methods to improve patient outcomes, working with other local providers to share best practice. For example the practice had recently commenced diabetes care planning.

• Feedback from patients about their care was consistently positive. Results from the national GP patient survey showed the majority of patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment when compared to the local and national averages. All feedback (verbal and written) from patients received on the day of inspection confirmed this.

• 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. For example, the practice website had recently been revised increasing the information content.

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

• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP, with urgent appointments available the same day.

• The practice actively reviewed complaints and how they are managed and responded to, and made improvements as a result.

• The practice had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority. The strategy to deliver this vision had been produced with stakeholders and was regularly reviewed and discussed with staff.

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

However, there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements. Importantly the provider should:

• Review how carers are identified and recorded on the patient record system to ensure information, advice and support is made available to them.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We reviewed the information available to us about Water Meadow Surgery on 22 May 2019. We did not find evidence of significant changes to the quality of service being provided since the last inspection. As a result, we decided not to inspect the surgery at this time. We will continue to monitor this information about this service throughout the year and may inspect the surgery when we see evidence of potential changes.