Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr Anita Malkhandi on 2 December 2015. The practice has a branch surgery at the address: 4 Lexden Street, Warrington, WA5 1PT which was also inspected. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance.

• Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.

• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and that they were involved in decisions about their care and treatment.

• Patients felt the GP knew their needs well and that they received a personalised service as a result. Patients felt the practice had a strong personal element whereby they were listened to, seen and treated as individuals.

• Patients felt well informed about their health needs and the treatment options available to them.

• The practice was proactive in supporting patients with their health needs.

• There were systems in place to reduce risks to patient safety for example, infection control procedures.

• Patients found it easy to make an appointment and there was good continuity of care.

• The practice had good facilities, including disabled access. It was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.

• There was clear leadership and structure and staff understood their roles and responsibilities.

• The practice proactively sought feedback from patients and acted upon it.

• Complaints were investigated and responded to appropriately.

• The practice learned from events and complaints and used this learning to improve the service.

• The practice made good use of audits, the results of which were used to improve outcomes for patients.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

• The practice had a long standing arrangement for contacting vulnerable patients on a regular basis by telephone to ask after their welfare and check if they required any additional support from the practice.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Review the system for following patients up for immunisations and health screening to ensure it is fully implemented and more effective in reaching patients who do not attend.

• Complete the refurbishment of the branch surgery.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We spoke with three patients on the day and following our visit. They spoke positively about the practice and commented that they were happy with the care they received. The practice provided patients with information about the services available through their website and leaflets on display in the waiting room.

The practice had electronic records in place to accurately describe the contact patients had with the service and the actions taken to provide appropriate care and treatment.

We found staff had access to contact details for both child protection and adult safeguarding teams. They were able to describe the appropriate actions they had taken with recent safeguarding concerns.

The practice had an up to date recruitment policy in place. We looked at two personnel files and found contracts in place and evidence of identification and qualification checks.

The practice had a range of policies and procedures in place for staff to access, which supported the safe running of the service. The General Practitioner (GP) described the regular audits/reports which the practice completed following any significant event, for example audits of patients’ records and procedures for handling and sharing information.

The practice leaflet and website provided patents with information about how to raise a concern. Patients we spoke with told us they would raise any concerns with the clinical or reception staff.

We reviewed the information available to us about Dr Anita Malkhandi on 5 June 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.