Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection July 2015 – 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 follow-up inspection at Marfleet Group Practice on 13 December 2017 as part of our inspection programme.
At this inspection we found:
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The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
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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.
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Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
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Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
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There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
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The practice implemented service developments using input from clinicians to understand their impact on the quality of care.
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The practice had implemented a new telephone system for patients to allow them to efficiently select the service they need.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
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Clinical audits should include a full cycle of events to ensure patient outcomes are improved and reflection and learning is recorded with action points identified.
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Consider Mental Capacity Act training for all staff.
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Consider implementing further systems to ensure patient access to appointments is improved.
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Although team meetings take place on an ad-hoc basis the practice should develop more formal regular reviews for staff to have
- The overall Quality Outcome Framework (QOF) exception reporting rate was 17% compared with a national average of 10%. (QOF is a system intended to improve the quality of general practice and reward good practice. Exception reporting is the removal of patients from QOF calculations where, for example, the patients decline or do not respond to invitations to attend a review of their condition or when a medicine is not appropriate.) The practice should consider further systems to ensure the exception rate figure is improved.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice