This practice is rated as Requires Improvement overall. (Previous rating December 2017 – Requires improvement)
The key questions at this inspection are rated as:
Are services safe? – Requires improvement
Are services effective? – Good
Are services caring? – Good
Are services responsive? – Good
Are services well-led? - Inadequate
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Seymour House Surgery - Hudson on 20 November 2018 to follow up on breaches of regulations identified during the previous inspection in December 2017.
At this inspection we found:
- There was a lack for formal processes in place to manage risk, and the management team did not have sufficient oversight of the risk mitigation activities undertaken by staff members. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes; however, the records of these incidents did not contain sufficient detail about the actions taken and lessons learned, and information about incidents were not always shared in a timely way with relevant staff members.
- The governance framework in place was insufficient to ensure the safe and effective running of the practice, and leaders lacked insight about the consequences of this.
- The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
- Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
- Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
The areas where the provider must make improvements as they are in breach of regulations are:
- Care and treatment must be provided in a safe way for service users.
- Systems or processes must be established and operated effectively.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
- Take action to increase the number of patients with caring responsibilities identified.
- Continue to take action to increase the uptake of childhood immunisations.
- Take action to increase the uptake of cervical screening.
- Review the results of the most recent NHS GP Patient Survey and take action to address areas of low patient satisfaction.
- Take action to establish a patient participation group.
I am placing this service in special measures. Where a service is rated as inadequate for one of the five key questions or one of the six population groups and after re-inspection has failed to make sufficient improvement, and is still rated as inadequate for any key question or population group, we place it into special measures.
Services placed in special measures will be inspected again within six months. If, after re-inspection, the service has failed to make sufficient improvement, and is still rated as inadequate for any population group, key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating the service. This will lead to cancelling their registration or varying the terms of their registration within six months if they do not improve.
The service will be kept under review and if needed could be escalated to urgent enforcement action. Where necessary, another inspection will be conducted within a further six months, and if there is not enough improvement we will move to close the service.
Special measures will give people who use the service the reassurance that the care they get should improve.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice
Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.