We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at St Lawrence Surgery on 23 September 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as outstanding.
Safe - good
Effective - good
Caring - good
Responsive – outstanding
Well-led - outstanding
Following our previous inspection on 2 August 2016 the practice was rated outstanding overall and for providing responsive and well-led services. They were rated good for providing safe, effective and caring services.
The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for St Lawrence Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk
Why we carried out this inspection
We undertook this inspection as part of a random selection of services rated Good and Outstanding to test the reliability of our new monitoring approach. The inspection was a comprehensive inspection to look at all key questions.
How we carried out the inspection/review
This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.
This included:
- Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
- Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
- Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
- Requesting evidence from the provider.
- A short site visit.
Our findings
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 found that:
- The practice was engaged with other local services and were active in working collaboratively to develop services that met the needs of the local population. Examples included the development of LGBTQ+, veteran, safeguarding and mental health services.
- They continued to provide high quality care and treatment and inspired staff to use innovative ways to improve services for patients.
- They routinely carried out a number of quality improvement projects to meet the changing needs of the local population.
- They shared improvement initiatives with other practices to develop services locally and nationally.
- The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
- Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
- Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
We found the following outstanding practice:
- The practice had implemented a patient signposting service and developed the multidisciplinary team in a way that improved access to general practice appointments for patients. There was a demonstrable improvement in GP patient survey results.
Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:
- Implement a system of checks to ensure that patients referred for a two week wait referral have attended their appointment.
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA
Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services