Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Great Homer Street Medical Centre on 11 May 2017. Overall the practice is rated as good and outstanding for providing services for vulnerable patients.
Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:
- Staff worked well together as a team to support patients to access treatment and address their lifestyle needs.
- Staff were aware of current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills and knowledge to deliver effective care and treatment in particular for patients who were more vulnerable.
- There was a flexible approach to appointments depending on patient need and urgent appointments were available the same day.
- There was an open and transparent approach to safety and a system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
- Care Quality Commission (CQC) comment cards reviewed indicated that patients were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
- Information about services and how to complain was available. Learning from complaints was shared with staff.
- There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management.
- The provider was aware of the requirements of the duty of candour.
We saw elements of outstanding practice:
- There was a strong emphasis on promoting well- being for patients. The practice referred patients to support groups to help support healthy living and had sent members of staff to courses provided to ensure the services were suitable for their patients. The practice recognised that uptake for these services for this population was sometimes low. As a result the practice had employed a well- being co-ordinator to encourage the uptake of healthy living services and information about services was accessible.
- The practice is situated in an area of high social deprivation and responded well to those patients who presented with more challenging issues such as asylum seekers, homeless patients and those with drug and alcohol addiction. In these instances, the practice team engaged with other health care professionals and social support groups. Staff demonstrated they knew their patients well and could respond to patient’s individual needs effectively. For example, the practice recognised that patients who had been addicted to heroin often went on to develop chronic obstructive respiratory diseases and early diagnostic testing was included in health care reviews of these patients.
The areas where the provider should make improvement are:
- Review incidents periodically to identify any trends to reduce the risks of reoccurrence.
- Work towards identifying more carers .
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice