Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive
inspection at Wilcodoc (also known as Salisbury Walk-In Centre) on 21 March
2017. The service provides an out of hours service. Overall the service is
rated as good.
Our key findings across all the areas we
inspected were as follows:
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There was an open and transparent approach to
safety and an effective system in place for recording, reporting and learning
from significant events.
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Risks to patients were assessed and well
managed.
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Patients’ care needs were assessed and
delivered in a timely way according to need.
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Staff
assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based
guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and
experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
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There
was a system in place that enabled staff access to patient records, and the out
of hours staff provided other services, for example the local GP and hospital,
with information following contact with patients as was appropriate.
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Patients said they were treated with
compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and
decisions about their treatment.
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Information about services and how to
complain was available and easy to understand. Improvements were made to the
quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
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The service worked proactively with other
organisations and providers to develop services that supported alternatives to
hospital admission where appropriate and improved the patient experience.
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The service had good facilities and was well
equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
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There
was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The service
proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
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The provider was aware of and complied with
the requirements of the duty of candour.
We saw one area of outstanding service:
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The service worked closely with local GP
practices and the clinical commissioning group to review the needs of its local
population and to secure improvements to services where these were identified. We
saw numerous examples of innovative service developments that had been proposed
and implemented by the service to support local needs. For example, in response
to an increase in the number of children attending the local accident and
emergency unit with a minor illness and an increase in non-elective admissions,
the service had worked with local GP practices and the local clinical
commissioning group (CCG) to develop a specialist out-of-hours paediatric
service that had reduced hospital attendance and admissions by this group of
patients.
The areas where the provider should make improvement are:
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Review the need to assess the clinical needs of patients who may have to
wait more than 30 minutes to be seen.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice