Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at West Rainton Surgery on 17 November 2015. 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 to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment although not always with their choice of GP. There were urgent and appointments available the same day for GPs and Nurses, and in 2 days for routine appointments with GPs.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• 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.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• The practice worked closely with other organisations and with the local community in planning how services were provided to ensure that they met people’s needs.

We saw some areas of outstanding practice;

• The practice offered dermatology treatment from one of GPs who had completed further training. On audit this had reduced referrals to secondary care in the last year by 26%.

• The practice offered a free medicine delivery service for frail, elderly and isolated patients and employed someone to do this.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We reviewed the information available to us about West Rainton Surgery on 2 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.