Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of Dr Brigham and Dr Joseph on 18 August 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 consistently positive. Patients reported that they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect. Patient feedback in relation to access was comparable with 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 had proactively sought feedback from patients and had an active patient participation group. The practice 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 higher 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