9 June 2015
During a routine inspection
Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Hodge Hill Family Practice on 9 June 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.
Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led services. It was also good for providing services for older people; people with long-term conditions; families, children and young people; working age people; people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable and people experiencing poor mental health.
Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:
- Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed.
- The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. Cleanliness and infection control was well maintained at the practice.
- Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. We found that the practices audits were mostly driven by the medicines management team at the CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group). The practice recognised the need to conduct more clinical audits and they shared a summary of other audits due to be carried out at the practice.
- Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned for. However, there was some inconsistency regarding awareness of lead roles within the practice. For example, some staff were unaware of the lead for safeguarding.
- Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect.
- Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
- There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. Patients and staff told us how continuity of care was improving with permanent GPs in place; however we found that patients over the age of 75 did not have a named GP.
There were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.
Importantly the provider should:
- Ensure processes are robust with regards to the management and dissemination of national patient safety alerts and ensure communication is consistent amongst clinical staff at the practice.
- Ensure risks to patients are assessed and recorded in relation to health and safety.
- Continue to strengthen a programme of clinical audits in the practice, ensuring that full cycle audits are completed with improvements recorded.
- Ensure support is offered to families who have suffered bereavement and ensure information is available for carers to offer support and signpost carers to local support services.
- Ensure a consistent approach is applied when applying learning points to complaints made regarding locum GPs who may fail to respond to complaints once they have left the practice.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice