Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a comprehensive inspection of Bennfield Surgery on 22 July 2015. Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led services. It was also good for providing services for the older people, people with long-term conditions, families, children and young people, working age people (including those recently retired and students), people living in vulnerable circumstances, and people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia).

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows.

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. Opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. Information was provided to help patients understand the treatment choices available to them.
• The practice implemented suggestions for improvements and made changes to the way it delivered services as a consequence of feedback from patients and from the Patient Participation Group (PPG).
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. Information about how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• The practice had a well-established and well trained team and had expertise and experience in a wide range of health conditions.
• The practice had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority. A delivery plan for the next 12 months was in place, was monitored and regularly reviewed and discussed with all staff. High standards were promoted and owned by all practice staff.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Bennfield Surgery on 17 January 2019 as part of our inspection programme. The practice had previously been inspected on 22 July 2015 and had been rated as good in all areas.

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 have rated this practice as good overall and good for all population groups.

We found that:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm. They had established systems which all staff were aware of to ensure the safety of patients and staff was maintained.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs which was evident both in practice’s clinical achievement as well as from patients’ satisfaction with the care they received.
• There were systems to support effective governance and staff had allocated roles and responsibilities which they were all aware of and had been appropriately trained to carry out.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care. This was reported by patients on the day of inspection.
• The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• The management team worked closely together and maintained effective communication to promote the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.
• Staff reported feeling well supported in their work and were encouraged to develop within the practice.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• To continue to explore and monitor ways of improving patient satisfaction when making an appointment.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice