Sutton Valence Group Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Sutton Valence Group Practice on 13 August 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

• what we found when we inspected
• information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
• information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We have rated this practice as Good overall.

We rated the practice as outstanding for providing caring services because:

• The practice was an integral part of the local community and actively promoted the health of the population and because feedback from patients was consistently positive about the service they received from the practice.
• Patients had been supported by GPs and staff in times of bereavement of family members not registered with the practice. They told us that they were grateful for the support and guidance given to them and they appreciated the time staff spent with them.

• Staff were highly motivated and inspired to offer care that was kind and promoted people’s dignity. We saw that relationships between patients, those close to them and practice staff was strong, caring and supportive.

We rated the practice as outstanding for providing responsive services because:

• Individual needs and preference were central to the planning and delivery of tailored services. The services were flexible, provided choice and ensured continuity of care.

• The national GP patient survey results published in July 2019 showed the practice was performing better than the local and national averages. These results were consistent for the practice over the last five years, despite the changes in partner/ownership.

We rated the practice as requires improvement for providing safe services because:

• There were identified issues with; fixed wiring certification and legionella checks, monitoring gaps in training and competency checks, vaccination screening of staff and staff recruitment checks. The practice was responsive to addressing these and implemented changes on the day of the inspection, therefore no breaches of regulation were identified. However, the new systems and processes require time to be fully embedded.

We also rated the practice as good for providing effective and well-led services because:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• There were comprehensive systems to keep people safe, which take account of current best practice.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.
• Systems and processes to ensure good governance were good overall but some areas required time to be embedded to ensure they were implemented effectively.

The areas where the provider the provider should make improvements:

• Continue to ensure that dispensers are competency checked in line with the practices policy and procedures.
• Establish and implement means to provide medicine labels in other formats such as large print or braille.
• Continue to monitor cervical screening uptake to ensure projected targets are achieved and maintained.
• Continue to improve the number of carers identified, to ensure they receive appropriate care and support.
• Continue to ensure that governance arrangements, implemented at the time of the inspection, are effectively embedded.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Rosie Bennyworth BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice