Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out this comprehensive inspection on 9 March 2015.

Overall, we rated this practice as good.

Our key findings were as follows:

• The practice provided a good standard of care, led by current best practice guidelines.
• Patients told us they were treated with dignity and respect.
• The practice performed well in the management of long term conditions.
• Patients could access appointments without difficulty, and were happy with the telephone and repeat prescribing systems.
• The practice had developed good continuity of care for patients in nursing homes, and good communication with home staff.
• The building was safe for patients to access, with sufficient facilities and equipment to provide safe effective services.

We saw some areas of outstanding practice including:

• Enhanced care plans and communication/education with care homes including weekly ward rounds.
• The practice manager visited management staff at nursing homes quarterly, and the practice had promoted shared training initiatives with care home staff.
• The practice was able to evidence a fall in emergency admissions to hospital as a result of these initiatives.

However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

The provider should:

• Ensure systems are effective to check and identify when medicines in doctor’s bags have reached their expiry date, so that these are disposed of.
• Ensure scales are checked and calibrated in accordance with manufacturers recommendations.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice