Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Gravel Hill Surgery on 18 January 2016. A breach of a legal requirement was found and a requirement notice was served. The practice sent us an action plan to say what they would do to meet the legal requirement in relation to:
- Regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014: Safe care and treatment.
The overall rating for the practice was good and the full comprehensive report for the January 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Gravel Hill Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
We undertook an announced focused inspection on 6 April 2017. We did not visit the practice but reviewed the information sent to us by the provider to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to address the breach in one regulation that we identified during our January 2016 inspection. This report only covers our findings in relation to those requirements and additional improvements made since our last inspection.
Our key findings were as follows:
- The practice had a register of 31 patients with learning disabilities. In 2016 all of these patients had been invited to attend an annual health check. Sixteen had received a health check, 11 declined, three had not responded and one had not attended their appointment.
- The provider had risk assessed the policy for exception reporting patients without clinical input. Exception reporting is the removal of patients from QOF calculations where, for example, the patients are unable to attend a review meeting or certain medicines cannot be prescribed because of side effects.
- The provider had implemented a system for monitoring the use of prescription pads that minimised the risk of fraud by logging the sequential numbers of pads used.
Overall the practice is rated as good and good in the population group for people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. This recognises the improvements made to the service provided for patients in this population group.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice