Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
Our previous comprehensive inspection at Bartlemas Surgery on 26 September 2016 found breaches of regulations relating to the governance of the practice. The overall rating for the practice was good, but they were rated requires improvement in the effective domain. The full comprehensive report from the September 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Bartlemas Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
This inspection was an announced focused inspection visit carried out on 12 April 2017. It was conducted 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 improvements made since our last inspection.
We found the practice had made improvements since our last inspection. The evidence we reviewed and collected identified that the practice was meeting the regulation that had previously been breached. We have amended the rating for this practice to reflect these changes. The practice is now rated good for the provision of safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led services. In addition the practice made improvements to its services where we suggested this could improve services for patients.
Our key findings were:
- Improvements to diabetes care were in progress and reflected in data since our previous inspection.
- There had been a significant reduction in exception reporting in national clinical data submissions since our previous inspection.
- The process for medicine reviews had been improved and data indicated monitoring was taking place.
- Health checks for patients with learning disabilities had increased significantly.
- Guidance on obtaining consent from patients under 16 had been implemented.
- Survey data indicated the majority of patients were satisfied with access to preferred GPs.
- In the July 2016 GP national survey results the practice had a lower than average rating for seeing a GP of choice. In our last inspection report we suggested the provider should consider this. The practice undertook its own survey published in March 2017 and this showed a significant difference to the national GP survey and significantly better results in terms of access to a named GP. This indicated that of those patients to whom the question was relevant, 67% stated they found access to a GP of choice acceptable or easy. There were 326 responses to the survey.
Areas the provider should make improvements:
- Continue to improve the care for patients and performance in diabetes.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice