Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced inspection of Torridon Road Medical Practice on 11 February 2016. Breaches of legal requirements were found. After the comprehensive inspection, the practice wrote to us to say what they would do to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches of regulation 9, Person centred care, regulation 12 Safe care and treatment and regulation 18 Staffing of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
We undertook this focussed inspection on 8 November 2016 to check that they had followed their plan and to confirm that they now meet the legal requirements. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also where additional improvements have been made following the initial inspection. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Torridon Road Medical Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
After the comprehensive inspection of 11 February 2016, the practice was rated as requires improvement. They were rated as requires improvement for providing safe, caring, responsive and well led services. They were also requires improvement for all population groups.
Following the focussed inspection of 8 November 2016 we found the practice to be good overall, but good for providing caringservices.
Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:
- The practice had a cold chain policy in place whereby temperatures outside of safe levels were reported and advice sought.
- The practice had not taken any formal action in relation to continued patient feedback which rated the practice below the national average.
- The practice had altered its telephone system and appointed more administrative staff in response to feedback about the telephone system. However, the practice has not yet received feedback from a national survey to confirm that patients were better able to access appointments by telephone.
- The practice had systems in place to ensure that all incoming post was reviewed promptly.
- The practice had appointed several long term locums and was continuing to try to recruit permanent GPs.
The area where the provider must make improvement is:
The areas where the provider should make improvement are:
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The practice should ensure that patients are able to access appointments easily by telephone.
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The practice should consider documenting any advice provided by leads in medicines management, and consider developing a failsafe system so that refrigerator temperatures are recorded every day that the practice is open.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice