29 March 2017
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr R Miarkowski and Partners on 15 March 2016. During this inspection we found breaches of legal requirement and the provider was rated as requires improvement under the safe domain. The full comprehensive report on the March 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Dr R Miarkowski and Partners on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Following this inspection the practice sent to us an action plan detailing what they would do to meet the legal requirements in relation to the following:
- Ensuring that all staff who have unsupervised access to patients have undergone a check via the disclosure and barring service (DBS).
- Ensuring records of cleaning, specifically the laundering of material privacy curtains are maintained to demonstrate that these curtains are laundered in line with national infection control guidelines.
Additionally we had found that:
- The provider needed to review appointment accessibility in line with their action plan.
This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 29 March 2017 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.
Overall the practice is rated as good.
Our key findings were as follows:
- The practice had undertaken DBS checks on staff who required these checks. New staff who had started employment since our last inspection had also undergone an enhanced DBS check.
- The practice had reviewed their procedure for laundering fabric privacy curtains. These had been replaced with disposable curtains and were subject to a six monthly replacement programme.
Additionally:
- The practice continued to keep their appointment availability under review. We saw evidence to demonstrate appointments were available for patients. More appointments had been released each day and could be booked in advance. Urgent appointments were also available for patients. The practice was working collaboratively with other local providers to review the demand for on the day appointments in the area.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice