Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We inspected this service on 31 October 2014 as part of our new comprehensive inspection programme.
The overall rating for this service is good. We found the practice to be good in the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led domains. We found the practice provided good care to older people, people with long term conditions, families, children and young people, the working age population and those recently retired, people in vulnerable circumstances and people experiencing poor mental health.
Our key findings were as follows:
- Patients were kept safe because there were arrangements in place for staff to report and learn from incidents that occurred. The practice had a system for reporting, recording and monitoring significant events over time.
- There were systems in place to keep patients safe from the risk and spread of infection.
- Evidence we reviewed demonstrated that patients were satisfied with how they were treated and that this was with compassion, dignity and respect. It also demonstrated that the GPs were good at listening to patients and gave them enough time.
- The practice had an open culture that was effective and encouraged staff to share their views through staff meetings and significant event meetings.
We saw an area of outstanding practice:
- The practice had engaged with the expert patients’ programme which aimed to educate patients who were living with a long-term health condition to take more control over their health. This was to be achieved through patients understanding and managing their conditions, which would help them lead an improved quality of life. Becoming an expert patient was seen as empowering for people with chronic conditions.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice