Archived: South Lewisham Group Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at South Lewisham Group Practice on 5 June 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically we found the practice to be good for providing effective, caring, responsive and well led services and for providing services to all patient groups, it required improvement to providing safe services.

Our key findings were as follows:

• Patients said that they were treated with kindness and respect, their dignity was maintained, they were involved in decisions about their care and treatment and they said staff were caring;
• Information about the services provided, how to make a complaint and how to get involved with the Patient Participation Group were available to patients on the practice website and displayed at the practice;
• Patients reported good access to urgent on the day appointments, however they reported delays in getting through to the practice to make appointments and having to wait when they arrived at reception;
• Patient’s needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff received the training they needed to carry out their role;
• Staff were clear about their responsibilities to report incidents and raise concerns and learning from incidents was shared;
• Systems were in place to assess and monitor risks to patients with the exception of those relating to staff recruitment checks;
• There were clinical leads for the chronic diseases experienced by patients registered at the practice;
• Data showed the practice was predominantly in line with local averages;
• Systems were in place for audit cycles to be completed and the information was shared with all GPs.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

• The Patient Participation Group arranged regular market stalls where local health and social care providers and services were invited to the practice to give talks and information to patients;
• The way patients with diabetes were encouraged and supported to be involved in their care and treatment, taking responsibility for their condition;
• The use of a cardiologist to interpret electrocardiograms electronically to ensure they were interpreted quickly and correctly.

However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

Importantly, the provider must:

• Ensure the staff recruitment process includes all the required checks being completed before new staff start work.

In addition the provider should:

• Ensure the surgery is accessible to patients using a wheelchair.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice