29 June 2015
During a routine inspection
Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We inspected this service on 29 June 2015 as part of our new comprehensive inspection programme.
The overall rating for this service is good. We found the practice to be good in the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led domains. The practice was good at providing services for older people, people with long term conditions, families, children and young people, the working age population and those recently retired people in vulnerable circumstances and people experiencing poor mental health.
Our key findings were as follows:
- Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses.
- Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. Information was provided to help patients understand the care available to them.
- There were systems in place to keep patients safe from the risk and spread of infection.
- The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
- Information about how to complain was available for patients should they wish to make a complaint.
- The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) data showed the practice was performing highly compared with local and national averages, achieving an overall score of 98.5% in the 2014 to 2015 year.
- The practice held regular multidisciplinary clinical team meetings to discuss the needs of complex patients, for example those with end of life care needs or children who were considered to be at risk of harm.
- The practice had an open culture that was effective and encouraged staff to share their views through staff meetings and practice meetings.
However there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.
Importantly the provider should:
- Establish a system for logging verbal complaints received by the practice so that patterns and trends can be identified.
- Review their recruitment policy and procedures to ensure that all checks required under current legislation are carried out when staff are recruited.
- Establish a system to ensure that minutes of all meetings accurately record discussions that take place to provide an audit trail of information sharing, learning and outcomes.
- Ensure all staff are aware of their role and responsibilities when carrying out chaperone duties.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice