Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
On 12th November 2015, we carried out a comprehensive inspection at Elsenham Surgery. Overall the practice was rated as good, with requires improvement for safe services. This was because we found that the practice did not have a controlled medicines register for the GP's bag, the cabinets where controlled medicines were stored were not compliant with the storage requirements for controlled medicines and we were not satisfied that medicines in the dispensary were only accessible to authorised staff.
In relation to this, the practice was issued with a requirement notice for improvement. We also made advisory comments that entries in the controlled medicines record should be made in ink rather than pencil.
After this inspection the practice sent us an action plan that identified how they would achieve the improvements and the date when they would be completed. We then carried out an announced focused inspection at Elsenham Surgery on 12th July 2016 to check that the necessary improvements had been made.
Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:
- There was a controlled medicines register in the GP's bag;
- The cabinet where controlled medicines were stored was compliant with storage requirements for controlled medicines;
- Steps had been taken to improve security and access so that medicines were only available to authorised staff;
- Entries in the controlled medicines register were made in ink rather than pencil.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice