07 October 2014
During a routine inspection
Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We inspected this service on the 7 October 2014 as part of our new comprehensive inspection programme. This provider had not been inspected before and that was why we included them.
We found that the practice had made provision to ensure care for people was safe, caring, responsive and effective and well led we have rated the practice as good.
Our key findings were as follows:
- Lessons were learned and improvements were made when things went wrong.
- Patients were supported to live healthier lives.
- Patients told us they were treated with kindness, dignity, respect and compassion whilst they received care and treatment.
- A range of appointments were available for patients, they could access care and treatment at the practice in a timely way.
- Staff understood their role in achieving a patient focussed service.
We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:
- The GP and practice manager ensured the full potential of the IT system was used, including using this to monitor staff’s review, incidents, complaints, policies and training. The practice manager actively used this information in staff appraisals and for planning learning and development.
- The practice had created a virtual patient participation group (PPG) to source patient’s opinions about their experiences and actively promoted this.
- The GP worked with a local nursing home and did a weekly ward round to the practices patients. The practice was proactively involved in assessing, planning and delivering people’s care and treatment. As a result all of the patients now have a care plan which is kept in the patient’s record. This has resulted in a reduction of hospital admissions.
However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.
- The practice do not always use information from significant events to promote learning.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice