Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr Maurice O’Connell & Partners (The Beacon Surgery) on 1 March 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.
• Feedback from patients about their care was consistently and strongly positive.
• The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
• Urgent appointments were available on the day they were requested.
• 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 they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• 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.
• 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.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

• Elderly patients who were resident in care homes were visited each week by a GP allocated by the practice to that care home to ensure continuity of care. This was introduced in 2014 and has led to a 25% reduction in unplanned hospital admissions for these patients.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• To review policies in regard of staff whose role means they have unsupervised contact with patients and either risk assess the role or carry out relevant checks to ensure patient safety.

• To review what actions the practice could undertake to ensure that the maximum numbers of carers are identified within their patient list.

• To review their policies regarding completing legionella risk assessments so as to ensure patient and staff safety .

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We reviewed the information available to us about Dr Justin Morris and Partners on 24 May 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.