Mill Road Surgery

Updated 21 February 2018

• Mill Road Surgery provides primary care services at 47 Mill Road, Colchester, Essex, CO4 5LE.
• The practice has a helpful website www.millroad-surgery.co.uk to provide patients access to useful information about the practice.
• The practice population is 12,380, and the deprivation levels are lower than the national average.
• The practice offers a dispensing service to 2,566 rural patients on the registered practice list. These people live more than one mile (1.6km) from their nearest pharmacy.

Updated 21 February 2018

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection 12 January 2016 – Good)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? - Good

As part of our inspection process, we also look at the quality of care for specific population groups. The population groups are rated as:

Older People – Good

People with long-term conditions – Good

Families, children and young people – Good

Working age people (including those recently retired and students – Good

People whose circumstances may make them vulnerable – Good

People experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia) - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Mill Road Surgery on 12 December 2017 as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

• The practice had clear systems to manage risk and safety incidents to ensure they were less likely to happen.
• The practice learned from incidents and improved their processes, this was seen in meeting minutes and action plans.
• The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the patient care they provided.
• Care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based best-practice guidelines.
• Staff employed to dispense medicines had received regular checks of their competency to dispense medicines.
• All staff received an appraisal annually.
• Staff treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients told us they were involved in their care and treatment decisions.
• The practice responded to current patient needs and had developed forward planning to meet their recent patient population growth.
• We saw a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

• The practice maintained a registered list of people that were either isolated or alone during the Christmas period. During the week leading up to Christmas, they personally delivered a hamper to each person on the list to show the practice cared and was thinking of these people during the holiday period.

The area where the provider should make improvements are:

• Improve the identification and recording of carers registered at the practice to ensure they are offered the required support and guidance.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 21 February 2018

Updated 21 February 2018

Updated 21 February 2018

Updated 21 February 2018

Updated 21 February 2018

Updated 21 February 2018