Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection November 2014 – Good)

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Wymondham Medical Partnership on 6 November 2014.The practice was rated as good for providing safe, effective, caring and responsive services and requires improvement for providing well led services. Overall the practice was rated as good. The full comprehensive reports on the 6 November 2014 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Wymondham Medical Partnership on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Overall the practice is now rated as good, and good for providing well led services.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? - Good

As part of our inspection process, we also look at the quality of care for specific population groups. The population groups are rated as:

Older People – Good

People with long-term conditions – Good

Families, children and young people – Good

Working age people (including those recently retired and students – Good

People whose circumstances may make them vulnerable – Good

People experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia) - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Wymondham Medical Partnership on 15 January 2018.

At this inspection we found:

• The practice had systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When they did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes. The practice shared outcomes of significant events with staff and other local GP practices.
• There was a strong emphasis on the safety and well-being of all staff, although we noted that some actions from a health and safety risk assessment needed to be addressed.The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence based guidelines.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Staff were consistent and proactive in helping patients to live healthier lives.
• The facilities and premises were appropriate for the services delivered.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it. GP Patient Survey data on access to appointments was positive and above the local and national averages in most cases. Although patients found they could not always get through easily to the practice by phone.
• Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to carry out their roles and there was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
• The practice was in line with, or above, average for its satisfaction scores in the national GP patient survey.
• Staff we spoke with told us they were able to raise concerns and were encouraged to do so. They had confidence that these concerns would be addressed.
• The practice had a clear vision and credible strategy to deliver high quality care and promote good outcomes for patients.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Complete outstanding actions from risk assessments in relation to health and safety.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We inspected this practice on 6 November 2014 as part of our new comprehensive inspection programme.

The practice operates from one site in Wymondham and also provides a service to a local boarding school.

The overall rating for this practice is good. We found the practice was good in the safe, effective caring, responsive domains and required some improvement in the well-led domain. We found the practice provided good care to older people, people with long term conditions, people in vulnerable circumstances, families, children and young people, working age people and people experiencing poor mental health.

Our key findings were as follows:

• Patients were satisfied with how they were treated and that this was with compassion, dignity and respect. They felt the GPs listened to them and gave them enough time.
• Patients reported good access to the practice, had a named GP and received continuity of care, with urgent appointments available on the same day.
• The practice was responsive to the differing needs of its patient population.
• There was a culture of learning and development at the practice.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

• Palliative care kits were available for patients to have in their own homes, this ensured that there was immediate access to medication if required.
• A dedicated sexual health service was provided

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

The provider should:

• Ensure that learning from significant events and complaints is communicated to all staff groups.
• Ensure that there is a clear protocol for staff to follow when making decisions about whether a patient should have an appointment with a GP or a nurse.
• Ensure that risk assessments are all recorded.
• Ensure that there are checking arrangements in place to keep patients safe from the risk and spread of infection.
• Policies and procedures should be regularly reviewed.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice