7 November 2017
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection 21 February 2017 to 23 February 2017 – Good)
The key questions that we looked at on this occasion were rated as:
Are services safe? – Good
We carried out an announced focused inspection at Frimley Primary Care Service on 7 November 2017 to follow up on breaches of regulations identified at the previous inspection of 21 February 2017 to 23 February 2017. We looked at aspects of the safe domain.
The full comprehensive report on the 21 February 2017 to 23 February 2017 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Frimley Primary Care Service on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
At our inspection of 21 February 2017 to 23 February 2017, we found that:
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Medicines were not always provided to patients with an appropriate patient information leaflet.
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Processes in place for checking medicines, including those held at the base and in the out of hours vehicles were not sufficient to ensure that stock levels were appropriate.
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Contrary to guidelines some medicines supplies held in vehicles used for visiting patients had been split leaving only a few tablets inside the box and fewer than the number stated on the box.
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Lockable boxes held in each vehicle containing prescriptions for stock medicines and all medical records were only emptied every few days.
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Some boxes held in the out of hours vehicles for the safe storage and disposal of used sharps were being used longer than best practice guidelines and were incompletely labelled.
At this inspection we found that:
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All patients received an appropriate patient information leaflet when medicines were dispensed to them.
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A system of daily stock checks had been introduced that ensured that there were appropriate stocks of medicines stored at the base and available for the vehicles.
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Systems had been introduced to ensure that small quantities of medicines could be dispensed to patients and accurately recorded without splitting boxes containing full courses of medicines.
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The effectiveness of the new systems had been audited by the service.
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Lockable boxes in each vehicle containing prescriptions for stock medicines and all medical records were now emptied daily.
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Sharps boxes were being correctly used and labelled.
Additionally we saw that:
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The service had reviewed the practice of clinicians providing their own personal equipment and was going to provide all the equipment themselves.
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Vehicle checklists had been revised and the levels of oxygen in the oxygen canisters held in the vehicles were checked daily.
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The complaints system had been revised, complaints were correctly identified and copies of communications were retained for an appropriate period of time.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice