Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a desk based focused inspection of Chawton Park Surgery on 15 July 2016. This inspection was undertaken to check the practice was meeting the regulations. At our previous inspection on 5 February 2015, we found breaches of regulations relating to the safe delivery of services. The practice was rated good for providing effective, caring, responsive and well-led services and requires improvement for safe.

At our review on 15 July 2016, we found the practice was meeting the regulations that had previously been breached and we found the practice had made improvements since our last inspection on 5 February 2015

Key findings:

• The practice had reviewed and made changes to how medicines were stored and ensured appropriate arrangements were in place for monitoring the temperature of vaccine fridges;

• The practice had ensured that fire safety and legionella risk assessments were completed as needed;

• The practice had risk assessed the need for criminal record checks for staff who acted as chaperones.

We have amended the rating for safe to reflect these changes. The practice is now rated good for the provision of safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led services. The overall rating for the practice remains good.

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 Chawton ark Surgery on 5 February 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing well-led, effective, caring and responsive services. It was also good for providing services to older people, people with long term conditions, families, children and young people, working age people, people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable and people experiencing poor mental health. It required improvement for providing safe services.

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, with the exception of those relating to some equipment, fire safety and legionella.
• 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.
• The practice is a training practice and has up to four trainee GPs at any one time
• 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.
• Clinical audit was limited there were not any completed audit cycle. We were told that the lack of completing audit cycles had been identified by the GPs as an issue which was being addressed
• 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.

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

Action the provider MUST take to improve:

• Ensure that fire safety and legionella risk assessments are completed as needed.
• Ensure action is taken when the medicines/vaccinations fridges record an unsafe temperature range.
• Ensure equipment used to administer emergency care and treatment is within use by dates for sterile items.
• Risk assess the emergency medicines storage protocol.
• Risk assess the requirement for criminal record checks for staff who act as chaperones.

Action the provider SHOULD take to improve:

• Bring infection control training up to date for relevant staff.
• Implement a system to ensure full completion of clinical audit cycles.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice