Archived: Fellview Healthcare Ltd

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Fellview Healthcare Limited on 12 November 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings were as follows:

• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• Patients said they were able to get an appointment with a GP when they needed one, with urgent appointments available the same day.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure in place and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which they acted on.

• Staff throughout the practice worked well together as a team.

• Staff had received training appropriate to their roles.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

• A chronic disease ‘template’ (guidance for staff) had been developed within the practice to support nurses to carry out more effective and efficient checks for patients. The template had proved successful and other practices in the Whitehaven area had adopted the system. The practice IT manager also provided technical support to the other practices in the area.

• A new service for patients had been introduced in May 2015. The practice had employed two community nurse practitioners (CNPs) to carry out home visits to patients in 12 local care homes. The CNPs visited patients in the care homes, which reduced the workload for GPs but provided continuity of care for the patients. A survey of those who used the service had been carried out. A total of 15 responses were received. The results were overwhelmingly positive, for example, 100% of respondents felt the service was of benefit to them and 80% felt communication between clinicians and patients had improved.

• The practice was an early implementer of the patient access service (the facility was available well before the required implementation date of April 2016). The service enabled patients to access parts of their own medical records, including medication and allergy information.

• An influential and active patient participation group (PPG) had been established. The PPG had influenced the practice’s social media campaign and the chair of the group had recently been invited to deliver a presentation to managers on the key internal and external issues the practice faced.

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

The provider should:

• Ensure daily checks of the fridge temperatures are carried out across all four sites.
• Complete appraisals for all members of the nursing team.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP 

Chief Inspector of General Practice