Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
A comprehensive inspection was undertaken at Farningham Surgery on 30 October 2014.
Overall, we found that the practice requires improvement.
We found that the practice offered a good level of service to all of the patient population groups who received services and our key findings included:-
- patients received an effective, responsive service that identified and met their needs
- that patients had good access to the services and GPs
- that the appointments system worked well and availability of appointments was good
- patients felt they were treated with respect and dignity
- that staff were helpful, kind and considerate to their needs
- that patient privacy and confidentiality was maintained.
However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.
Importantly, the provider must:
- Review the arrangements for the management of medicines in relation to the authorisation of vaccines administered by health care assistants within the practice.
- Review the training undertaken by health care assistants to ensure it is appropriate to their role and in the administration of vaccines where they are authorised and directed to carry these out.
- Update and follow the practice recruitment policy to ensure all checks are in place when staff are employed at the practice.
- Review systems and processes for monitoring the quality and safety of the services provided, by undertaking regular audits, including infection control and premises checks and training audits, and take steps to ensure risks are identified, assessed, monitored and managed appropriately, including risks associated with legionella.
In addition the provider should:
- Review the record keeping arrangements used in the practice to record the actions taken by staff following the receipt of safety alerts.
- Ensure that accurate records are kept to identify which staff have attended safeguarding training and to what level.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice