Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We previously carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr SJF Goodison & Partners at Blackthorn Health Centre on 24 May 2016. The overall rating for the practice was good. The full comprehensive report on the May 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Dr SJF Goodison & Partners on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was a desk-based review carried out on 25 April 2017, to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements; in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 24 May 2016. We rated the practice as requires improvement for providing effective services, as not all staff had completed training appropriate to their role.

In addition, we also found that the practice needed to review the level of exception reporting of patients.

This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.

Overall the practice remains rated as Good.

Our key findings were as follows:

• The practice had provided training updates for staff in fire safety, moving and handling, information governance, and basic life support and this was recorded on a training matrix. .

• The practice produced a Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) exception reporting policy, which was made available for access to all members of staff and ensured appropriate exception reporting of patients took place.

• The practice had produced a protocol for “hard to reach patients”, to help staff with their exception reporting of patients. Unverifiable data was provided by the practice to demonstrate the reduction in their exception reporting of patients.

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

• Ensure all staff have completed the required mandatory training updates in a timely manner.

The practice is now rated as good for providing effective services.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr SJF Goodison and Partners on 24 May 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.

• 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.
• 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. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and 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.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.
• The practice employed a medicines management technician who provided patient education around medicines issues. Patients had access to a direct phone line to the technician to ask questions about changes in their medicines or to arrange a home visit to discuss further. The technician designed patient friendly information leaflets about different types of medicines.
• The practice achieved dementia friendly status in 2015 and had adapted signage at the practice to make it more dementia friendly.
• The practice received additional training to increase their understanding of what it was like for patients who are hard of hearing to attend a GP practice.

The areas where the provider must make improvements are:

• Ensure all staff have completed training appropriate to their role for example, basic life support and information governance.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review the practices level of exception reporting of patients.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We reviewed the information available to us about Blackthorn Health Centre on 18 April 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.