Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Churchill Medical Centre on 3rd and 10th 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.
• 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 areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Review cleaning log system for clinical equipment to ensure records are maintained.

• To review how patients with caring responsibilities are identified and recorded on the patient record system to ensure information, advice and support is made available to all.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a comprehensive inspection of the Churchill Medical Practice on 10 November 2014. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing effective, caring, responsive and well led services. The service was rated as requires improvement for providing a safe service. It was also good for providing services to older people, those with long term conditions, families, children and young people, working age people (including those recently retired and students), people whose circumstances make them vulnerable and those people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia).

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 recruitment checks.
• Clinical audit cycles had been carried out, and we saw evidence that audits were driving improvement in performance to improve patient outcomes.
• 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.
• Urgent appointments were usually available on the day they were requested. However patients said that they sometimes had to wait a long time for non-urgent appointments.
• The practice had a number of policies and procedures to govern activity.

The areas where the provider must make improvements are:

• Undertake an audit to address any issues with cleaning. Ensure cleaning schedules are produced and available for inspection within the practice;

In addition the provider should:

• Ensure all significant event forms are fully completed and actions from significant event meetings are fully documented.

• Produce a centralised practice training log.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice