Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at XX Place Health Centre 19 October 2017. 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 had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
• 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.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
• Feedback from patients about their care was consistently positive.
• The practice worked closely with other organisations and with the local community in planning how services were provided to ensure that they meet patients’ needs. For example the practice held a variety of multi-disciplinary team meetings (MDTS) with organisations such as Community Mental Health Teams (CMHTs), Community Palliative team and external consultants.
• 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 was part of the Well Programme along with the Bromley by Bow Partnership where they looked at patient care in a holistic way.
• The practice ran a social prescribing programme (with weekly session in surgery) to address wider holistic health needs such as employability, welfare benefits advice, addressing isolation.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice