Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We previously carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Willow Bank Partnership Community Interest Company (Also known as Willow Bank Surgery) on 4 August 2016. The overall rating for the practice was Good with requires improvement in providing safe services. The full comprehensive report from the 4 August 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Willow Bank Partnerships Interest Company (Willow Bank Surgery) on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 21 June 2017 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breach in regulation that we identified in our previous inspection on 4 August 2016. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.

Overall the practice is rated as Good.

Our key findings were as follows:

• The provider had enhanced their systems to receive and act on alerts about medicines that may affect patients’ safety.

• A written policy had been introduced for the identification and process of handling significant events.

• A process had been introduced for regularly reviewing Patient Group Directions (PGDs) to ensure that they met legislative requirements.

We also saw the following best practice recommendations we made at the previous inspection in relation to providing effective, caring and responsive services had been actioned:

• The provider had prioritised a plan and was working towards improving the uptake of annual health assessments for patients with a learning disability. Sixty percent of assessments had been completed since the last inspection and the remainder were scheduled to take place.

• The provider had carried out a detailed audit to investigate the reasons for the higher than average attendance at A&E by registered patients and was following up frequent attenders, reviewing and discussing ways that they can be supported.

• The provider had reviewed the reasons for lower patient satisfaction in the GP national survey for patient experience of their interaction with GPs.

• The provider had improved the documentation of complaint investigations and reviewed and process for obtaining patient consent for issues raised by a third party.

However, there was still an area of practice where the provider could make improvements.

The provider should:

• Develop a more detailed significant event reporting template and undertake a regular analysis of significant events to identify trends and monitor the effectiveness of any changes made.

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 Willow Bank Community Interest Company (Meir) on 4 August 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were 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.

• The practice offered seven day opening which enabled appointments to be made outside of traditional working hours. This included health screening and condition reviews.

• There was a proactive culture within the practice for identifying and monitoring children and young patients that were at increased risk of harm.

• The patient feedback we received about the practice was positive.

• The practice was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

• Most risks were well managed, although action was needed in the areas of acting upon alerts about medicines and the practice fire risk assessment in place.

The areas where the provider must make improvements are:

• Implement an effective system to receive and act on alerts about medicines that may affect patients’ safety.

In addition the provider should:

• Introduce a written policy for the identification and process of handling significant events.

• Introduce a process for regularly reviewing Patient Group Directions (PGDs) to ensure that they meet legislative requirements.

• Improve the uptake of annual learning disability health assessments.

• Investigate the reasons for lower patient satisfaction in the GP national survey for patient experience of their interaction with GPs.

• Investigate the reasons for the higher than average attendance at A&E by registered patients.

• Improve the documentation of the investigation of complaints and ensure that complaints made by others have documented patient consent for issues to be discussed with a third party.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice