Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Birchwood Medical Practice on 23 September 2015. Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, well led, effective, caring and responsive services. It was also rated as good for providing services for all of the population groups.

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

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.

• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and that there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We undertook an inspection of Birchwood medical centre on 22 October 2013 and spent the day at the surgery speaking with patients and members of staff.

We spent time with the practice manager, the registered managers, reception staff, practice nurses and patients to ascertain what it was like to use the service and examined records and systems that were in place to support people that used the service.

We spoke with four people at the surgery. Three people told us “it is alright here” with two people stating that “sometimes appointment times run late”. Another person told us “I am never rushed when I speak with my GP; they listen and advise me on my medical condition. They also referred me to a specialist including a dietician. I am happy with the service I receive and always manage to get an appointment when I want”.

Staff told us they were responsible for their own training needs and had completed safeguarding children training.

During our inspection we found the provider did not have suitable systems in place to monitor the quality of the service that was provided, as the views of the patients were not captured regularly. This meant people’s views did not inform service improvements.

We reviewed the information available to us about Birchwood Medical Practice on 9 May 2019. We did not find evidence of significant changes to the quality of service being provided since the last inspection. As a result, we decided not to inspect the surgery at this time. We will continue to monitor this information about this service throughout the year and may inspect the surgery when we see evidence of potential changes.