Archived: St James Medical Centre

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at St James Medical Centre on 9 December 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• Staff understood their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Most information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed. However, we saw evidence that this process was not robust to record all incidents.
• 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.

• Most 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. However, some comment cards and patients we spoke with also told us that they found it difficult to get an appointment at times.

• 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.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

The the practice offered a model of integrated care in the community for patients with diseases of the urinary tract. This service was accessible for all patients registered with the corporate provider as well as other patients within the community. This reduced referral to hospital by 65% as patients were managed more effectively in the community.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Ensure all incidents are recorded to ensure learning.

• Formal spot checks should be in place to ensure effective cleaning.

• All staff should be aware of all business continuity procedures

• Efforts should be made to register all carers and to ensure relevant information is available for them so that this group can access further help when required.

• Ensure an appropriate system are in place to respond to complaints timely.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice