Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at the Bewick Road Surgery on 14 October 2016. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

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

• Staff were very motivated to offer care that was kind, promoted patients’ dignity and respected cultural differences.

• Patients’ emotional and social needs were seen as being as important as their physical needs, and there was a strong, visible, person-centred culture. Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and were involved in decisions about their treatment. Patients reported that they had 100% confidence and trust in the GPs and nurses who treated them.

• The practice was highly effective in working with other organisations, and the local community, to plan services which met patients’ needs, and which provided flexibility, choice and continuity of care.

• All staff were actively engaged in monitoring and improving quality and patient outcomes.

• Staff were committed to supporting patients to live healthier lives through a targeted and proactive approach to health promotion.

• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. They had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.

• Risks to patients and staff were assessed and well managed.

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system for reporting and recording significant events. The staff team took the opportunity to learn from all internal and external incidents.

• The practice had satisfactory facilities and was equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.

• The leadership, governance and management of the practice helped ensure the delivery of good quality person-centred care, supported learning, and promoted an open culture.

We also identified several areas of outstanding practice:

• The quality of the practice’s advance care planning processes was excellent, with careful thought having been given to the patient’s situation and their need for care and treatment. The practice thought carefully about what information would be needed by other agencies if they needed to treat their patients. They provided a well-structured summary that included the patient’s normal state, recent measurement, blood tests and likely problems out-of-hours healthcare professionals might encounter. By providing this information they were enabling members of the wider health care team to get to know their patients quickly and accurately in an urgent situation. This helped to ensure appropriate levels of response and good continuity of treatments.

• The practice was highly committed to improving access for patients from the Orthodox Jewish community. Staff used a variety of methods to reach the community, to help improve health outcomes and provide culturally sensitive care and treatment. These included advertising in the Orthodox Jewish Community local paper to reach those whose religious beliefs involved restrictions on the use of mobile telephones, the internet, and other types of social media. By being this flexible the practice was able to deliver well focused medical intervention to people who otherwise might not have been enabled to approach the service for help. A local religious representative told us patients from the community engaged well with the practice, and the services it provided, which reflected the effort staff had made to make their service more accessible and responsive.

• Staff were highly committed to improving children’s health by improving access to, and the take-up of, childhood immunisations. offering vaccinations at appropriate times, and in multiple venues, to fit in with Orthodox Jewish community customs. This had led to a marked improvement, with overall immunisation rates rising from 45% to over 90%. Staff had achieved this by offering vaccinations at appropriate times, and in multiple venues, to fit in with Orthodox Jewish community customs. By being this flexible in their approach to delivering their childhood immunisation programme, staff were able to demonstrate they had provided effective immunisation services to children who were members of a potentially hard to reach patient group, as well as the rest of their patient population.

We also identified an area where the provider should make an improvement:

• Review the standard letter issued in response to complaints received to include details of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice