Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of Dr D S Rangar and Partners, Murton Medical Group on 17 November 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• The practice carried out clinical audit activity and were able to demonstrate improvements to patient care as a result of this.
• Feedback from patients about their care was better than local and national averages. Patients reported that they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect.
• Patient feedback in relation to access was lower than local clinical commissioning group and national averages.
• Patients were able to access same day appointments. Pre-bookable appointments were available within acceptable timescales.
• The practice had a number of policies and procedures to govern activity, which were reviewed and updated regularly.
• The practice was proactive in their approach to encouraging patients to use online services. Over 20% of the patient population had registered for online services.
• The practice had proactively sought feedback from patients and implemented suggestions for improvement and made changes to the way they delivered services in response to feedback.
• The practice used the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) as one method of monitoring effectiveness and had achieved an overall result which was lower than local and national averages. However, their clinical exception rate was also lower than local and national averages.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• The practice had a clear vision in which quality and safety was prioritised. The strategy to deliver this vision was regularly discussed and reviewed.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We spoke with six patients who attended the surgery on the day of our inspection.

The patients we spoke with were, without exception, satisfied that staff explained about the choices available to them. One patient said “They always tell me about my treatment and my options.” Another patient said “The doctor is really good; she goes through everything with me.” This meant that patients were helped to understand the care and treatment choices available to them.

We saw the practice had safeguarding policies in place for both children and vulnerable adults. There was an identified lead clinician with a clear role to oversee safeguarding within the practice.

We saw the practice was clean, tidy and well maintained. Personal protective equipment and hand hygiene gel was available throughout the practice. Hand washing instructions were also displayed by hand basins and there was a supply of liquid soap and paper hand towels.

We found staff received regular training and supervision. Staff told us they felt supported by their managers.

All of the patients we spoke with said that they knew they could speak to a member of staff if they had a complaint. One patient said "I haven’t had to complain but would speak to the reception if I needed to.”