Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Brow Medical Centre on 10 November 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.
• The practice placed a strong emphasis on addressing the wider social and lifestyle and community aspects of their patient’s health and worked closely with other organisations and with the local community to do this.
• 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). For example, the practice provided a Saturday morning and weekday evening flu clinic for working patients in response to patient feedback. Vaccines needed by students were also available at this time.
• 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 had strong and visible clinical and managerial leadership and governance arrangements.
• The practice recognised that the patient’s emotional and social needs were as important as their physical needs.
• Staff were motivated and inspired to offer kind and compassionate care and respected the totality of their needs.
• The practice had taken action on areas identified as having lower than average satisfaction within the national GP Survey. This included improved reception staffing during busy times.
• There is a strong collaboration and support across all staff and a common focus on improving quality of care and people’s experiences.
• The practice raised money, through patient and staff contributions, to buy Christmas hampers for vulnerable patients such as older people living alone.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

• The practice had worked in partnership with the ambulance service following an audit on unplanned admissions. The first cycle examined 120 such admissions over a four month period. The findings were discussed in a clinical meeting and in particular what category of admission might have been better served by a paramedic attending. As a result of the changes made there were 36 such admissions over a similar period, a 70% reduction.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice