We carried out a review of the data available to us about Bovey Tracey and Chudleigh Practice on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Bovey Tracey and Chudleigh Practice, you can give feedback on this service.
Bovey Tracey and Chudleigh Practice are rated as good overall and outstanding in the well led domain. (the previous inspection rating in April 2015 was Good with outstanding in the effective domain)
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? – Outstanding
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 inspection of Bovey Tracey and Chudleigh Practice on Tuesday 20 March 2018 as part of our inspection programme.
At this inspection we found:
The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen there was a genuinely open culture in which all safety concerns raised by staff and people who use services were used as opportunities for learning and improvement.
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.
Patients said the care and treatment they received was very good and added that staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it, although they added that they had to wait a little longer to see a GP of their choice.
There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation with many examples shared of career development.
The practice was organised, efficient, had effective governance processes and a culture which was embedded effectively and used to drive and improve the delivery of high-quality person-centred care.
The involvement of other organisations, voluntary services and the local community were integral to how services were planned. Proactive involvement ensured that services met patient’s needs.
The practice worked with H.I.T.S. (Homeless in Teignbridge) and held emergency food and toiletry bags at each practice for distribution to those in crisis.
The practice promoted the ‘Message in a Bottle’ scheme and distributed bottles. This scheme is a mechanism where information relating to frail and vulnerable patients (medical history, allergies and medicines) were stored in a container and kept within the patient’s fridge. All emergency staff were aware to check in the fridge to access this information to ensure the most effective care pathway for the patient.
The leadership, governance and culture were embedded, established and used to drive and improve the delivery of high-quality person-centred care and were clear, supportive and encouraged creativity.
The practice had standardised their use of the computer system through the development of templates which included care plans, patient leaflets, preferences, protocols, prompts and alerts to improve patient safety and care.
There were high levels of staff satisfaction. Staff were proud of the organisation as a place to work and spoke highly of the culture.
The partners and leadership team were aware of the changes within the community with planned allocation of over 900 homes in the area. The practice staff had begun planning for this increase in patient numbers.
We saw areas of outstanding practice including:
Leaders had an inspiring shared purpose and strive to deliver high quality services and motivate staff to succeed. The GPs and leadership team had invested in their staff over a long period of time. This had led to a happy, loyal workforce with low staff turnover. The practice welcomed nursing students, medical students and apprentices and had a long history of being a popular GP training practice. Staff were supported both financially and with protected time to develop both personally and professionally in addition to the required updates. For example; reception staff had been supported to develop to senior health care assistants and phlebotomists. Nursing staff had been mentored through non-medical prescribing and one had been supported through nurse practitioner training. This support and motivation had been recognised in 2017 when the employer had won an apprentice training provider award.
The organised leadership, detailed governance and culture were embedded and recognised as integral to ensuring high-quality care. We saw examples of detailed, multi-layered systems, audits, reviews and governance structures which demonstrated effective and safe outcomes for patients. These systems were detailed and monitored to ensure the information was effective and delivered in the best interest of patients.
Research was seen as an integral way to generate relevant evidence to help guide general practice and improve patient care. The research team in the practice had successfully recruited many patients and had obtained additional sessional status funding to move research forward in the area. As a result the team had won two awards for outstanding innovation and outstanding team culture award.
Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Bovey Tracey and Chudleigh Practice on Wednesday 15 April 2015.
Overall the practice is rated as good.
Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, well-led, caring and responsive services. We found the practice was outstanding in providing effective services. It was also good for providing services for all of the population groups.
Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:
There were areas of Outstanding practice:
The practice is outstanding in providing effective care. This can be demonstrated by the development of community working to enhance patient well being.
The practice had well organised processes in place and the administration and management of the practice was outstanding in that documentation, policies and procedures were of a very high standard. For example, personnel files from 20 years ago contained everything that would be expected with changes of legislation in recent years and were well organised and structured. Practice policies were comprehensive and complete and had been produced by the practice rather than being copied from templates or other practices.
However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.
Action the provider SHOULD take to improve:
Chief Inspector of General Practice