Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at West Walk Surgery on 6 May 2015. Overall the practice was rated as good with requires improvement for the safe domain. During this inspection we issued a requirement notice. This notice was due to a breach of Regulation 12 of The Health and Social Care Act (Regulated Activity) Regulations 2014, Safe care and treatment, in that the provider must make improvements in order to ensure services were safe for patients. The requirement notice was for the practice to implement the necessary changes to ensure patients who used the service were protected against the risks associated with infection prevention.

We undertook this focused inspection on 8 June 2016 to follow up the requirement notice made under Regulation 12 of The Health and Social Care Act (Regulated Activity) Regulations 2014.

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

• The practice had in place a regular programme and documented audits for infection control for both West Walk Surgery and Coalpit Heath Surgery.

• The practice had installed appropriate signage warning of the storage of dangerous gases, such as oxygen.

• The practice had undertaken a risk assessment at the Coalpit Heath Surgery for prevention of legionella as this was not in place at our last inspection.

• We found the practice had ensured that evidence for the proof of identity and recent photographsof staff employed, in line with the practices recruitment policy, were available.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at West Walk Surgery on 6 May 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing effective, caring, responsive and well led services. There were areas of safe which require improvement. It was also good for providing services for older people, people with long-term conditions, mothers, babies, children and young people, working-age population and those recently retired, people in vulnerable circumstances who may have poor access to primary care and people experiencing poor mental health.

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, with the exception of those relating to recruitment checks.
• 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.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and that there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
• 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.

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

Importantly the provider must:

• Have a regular programme and document audits for infection control for both West Walk Surgery and Coalpit Heath Surgery.
• Have appropriate signage warning of the storage of dangerous gases, such as oxygen in place.
• Undertake a risk assessment at the Coalpit Heath Surgery for legionella to establish that the risk was sufficiently low to make formal testing unnecessary

Importantly the provider should:

• Ensure that evidence of the recruitment checks carried out on staff, such proof of identity is kept.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice