Archived: Dr A Sinha and Dr G De

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr Sinha and Dr De (Cromwell Road Surgery) on 27 January 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive services that were well-led and met the needs of the population it served.

The practice was outstanding for the care of older people.

Our key findings were as follows:

• Patients who used the service were kept safe and protected from avoidable harm. The building was well maintained and clean.

• All the patients we spoke with were positive about the care and treatment they received. The CQC comment cards and results of patient surveys showed that patients were consistently pleased with the service they received.

• There was good collaborative working between the practice and other health and social care agencies that ensured patients received the best outcomes. Clinical decisions followed best practice guidelines.

• The practice met with the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to discuss service performance and improvement issues.

• There were good governance and risk management measures in place. The leadership team were visible and staff we spoke with said they found them very approachable.

We saw an area of outstanding practice:

• The practice employed a care co-ordinator whose role was to review and co-ordinate the care of older people and to signpost them to available services when needed. This was to ensure they had a care plan in place and were receiving care and treatment which would reduce the risk of unplanned admissions to hospital. There had been an improvement in the rate of unplanned admissions from 339 in 2013/14 to 291 in 2014/15.

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

Importantly the provider should:

• Ensure records were kept to confirm vaccines were maintained at the required temperature when being transported between practice sites.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice